From the moment they become pros, athletes experience a lot. Usually, you move into a new home in an entirely different city. For Houston Rockets forward Jae'Sean Tate, his rookie season began by living in another country. Tate played two years overseas before earning a spot with James Harden's Rockets. His confidence never diminished, and only grew after the star was traded to the Brooklyn Nets a few months later.
Tate joined ClutchPoints' YouTube series ‘Year 1' with Mark Haynes to talk about his rookie season, going undrafted, and every other experience.
“The odds are always stacked against a fourth-year player, especially in my position being smaller,” Jae'Sean Tate said. “Being a tweener is what they called it back in the day, so I always knew that it might not have happened for me, being drafted. … I knew that my career would be harder than a lot of other guys, and that's why my motto is I took the steps, some guys get to take the elevators, but I took the steps,” Tate tells ClutchPoints.
In his first season with the Rockets, Tate made sure opposing teams felt his presence in each game he played. After the departure of Russell Westbrook and James Harden, Tate was willing to help the Rockets the best way he knew.
“Regardless of who was on the floor, my role stays the same. I'm going to play hard, I'm going to defend, I'm going to set hard screens if you need me to come off a ball screen, I can … being consistent every night is all I try to do,” said Tate.
Listed at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Tate played both forward positions for the Rockets, which is undersized even in the small-ball era. He started in 58 of 70 appearances and became an essential piece of the puzzle for Houston. He obtained comparisons to his mentor P.J. Tucker and Draymond Green during his rookie season for his tough yet skilled style of play.
” P.J. (Tucker), Draymond (Green), Jae Crowder, like you see what he does and what he brings to the table. But there's not just somebody that I want to be similar to. You can look at every great basketball player, everybody in the NBA, they're in there for a reason, as they do something so great,” Tate explained.
Although the team never recovered from the loss of James Harden, finishing the season with a record of 17-56, the Rockets found something in Jae'Sean Tate. He averaged 11.3 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 50.6% from the field. He earned All-Rookie First-Team honors, and he's in the gym already preparing to take his game to the next level.
Tate also spoke about the James Harden trade and how it changed the entire season for him.
“I think it's always different when you're talking about one of the best scorers of all time,” Tate explained. “When that leaves, roles change, the role might get a little bigger or it might look a little different, but that's why we're in the position we're in. I think that we got a good group of young guys and some vets. This is, like I said, a rebuild year. I don't even like to say rebuild year. There's just some things we gotta work out, we gotta figure out, but this is one of the closest teams I've been on in my career. Usually that's followed by winning. I haven't been on many teams where the team camaraderie and the closeness of a team doesn't impact winning so I'm just excited. We've learned even more this summer and we'll see.”
Watch the full episode of ClutchPoints' Year 1 with Mark Haynes and Jae'Sean Tate below:
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