Jalen Green continued his broadly overlooked second-half surge on Tuesday, exploding for a career-high 42 points, 10 rebounds and three assists while shooting 7-of-13 from beyond the arc. More importantly, he led the surging Houston Rockets to a blowout 137-114 win over the Washington Wizards, sustaining their hopes of overtaking the Golden State Warriors or Los Angeles Lakers for the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament.
After the game, Green was asked what's motivated him during this career-altering stretch of play post All-Star break.
“Umm, my family. My family,” he said. “Umm, my baby, so yeah.”
"My family, my baby."
Rockets guard Jalen Green on what's been motivating him đź’Żpic.twitter.com/uvfMiNKrXm
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 20, 2024
The win moves Houston—winners of six straight games despite playing without star center Alperen Sengun, out for the season's remainder with a severely sprained right ankle and one bruise on his knee—to 33-35. Ime Udoka's team is two-and-a-half games behind Golden State and three-and-a-half back of Los Angeles with 14 left to play before the regular season ends.
Jalen Green's meteoric rise changes Rockets' future
The Rockets falling short of their play-in tournament dreams won't change what Green's meteoric rise means for their future.
The No. 2 overall pick of the 2021 draft failed to build on an abjectly disappointing first two years of his career over the first few months of 2023-24, calling his place in Houston's big-picture hierarchy into even greater question. Green averaged 18 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game before the All-Star break, his dismal 47.7 true shooting percentage ranking second-worst in basketball among high-usage players behind Jordan Clarkson's.
Green certainly didn't make up for that debilitating inefficiency on the other side of the ball, either. Houston's defensive rating with him on the floor pre All-Star was 114.2, a team-worst among regulars. That number dipped all the way down to an elite 105.5 when Green sat, a massive 8.7 point discrepancy that was matched by the eye test. Green was an abject liability defensively to begin the season, a frequent target of opposing stars in pick-and-roll action who doubled as an ineffective, unreliable help defender.
It's barely been a month since the All-Star festivities in Indianapolis. A 14-game sample size definitely isn't big enough to draw big-picture conclusions on a young player's progress, and the doldrums of March basketball often lend themselves to individual performances and team results that don't stand up to scrutiny of the following season.
Still, the two-way strides Green has taken over the last few weeks are impossible to ignore, especially considering they largely align with the playing profile that made him a projected star upon entering the league.
He's averaging 23.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists over the last 14 games on perfectly acceptable 57.3% true shooting. Green is shooting 38.5% from three overall during that timeframe, including 39.7% on off-dribble triples—among the most encouraging recent developments for his long-term trajectory, further unlocking him as a driver and playmaker. The 6'4 guard has been a far more active, physical and committed defender and rebounder of late, too, hinting at a prime that could allow him to function as an average defender at worst.
The result? Houston is outscoring opponents by a whopping 21.5 points per 100 possessions with Green on the floor since the All-Star break, an easy team-best. None of his teammates boast a better on-court net rating than Fred VanVleet's +8.8.
It was just six weeks ago that Green's name surfaced in rumors leading up to the trade deadline. With Sengun establishing himself as a franchise cornerstone while rookies Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore flashed star potential, would it have made sense for Houston to sell early on Green ahead of him becoming eligible for a contract extension this summer?
That team control actually made hanging onto Green the more sensible approach for Rafael Stone and the Rockets' front office even before his recent breakout. If Green didn't improve between this season's trade deadline and next year's, he could always be moved by then. It's not like his league-wide value would've sunken that much lower than it was in February anyway.
Thankfully, Green's recent play has ensured Houston won't be entertaining such a drastic team-building overhaul until he's already signed his next contract. A world really does exist now in which Sengun, Green, Thompson and Whitmore—not to mention Tari Eason, who briefly impressed on both ends before his season-ending injury—comprise the core of the next great Rockets team.
That's all Houston could've asked for in wake of Green's dreadful start to his third NBA go-around. Anything more, like a stunning run to the play-in tournament sans Sengun, may not cinch Green's future as a superstar, but would go a long way toward truly cementing his status as a Rockets building block.
Follow Us
Subscribe