Jalen Green reflects on first season in Houston, sees team growth

HOUSTON — Media members were huddled around the microphone at the Rockets’ practice facility, still laughing about rookie Alperen Sengun’s disclosure of his favorite English phrase (“FaSho,” meaning for sure) learned during his first year in the United States. Another young man walked in with a massive smile, greeting everyone in his presence.

That humbleness and smile have become a mainstay for Jalen Green during his rookie season in Houston. Even through the adversity he experienced this season, dealing with an injury that kept him out from late November to late December — or the mini-slump he went through as a shooter in late January — Green never stopped smiling and remained confident that he would overcome those types of issues, in time.

That attitude, along with his obvious athletic ability, has general manager Rafael Stone and head coach Stephen Silas excited about the future.

“He can be a very good basketball player, for sure,” Silas said of Green in his exit interview on Monday afternoon. “He will get stronger and more experienced. He will get better than he was this year, so that adds up to being a very good basketball player.”

Most fans and teams got a good look at what the No. 2 overall draft pick from the 2021 first round can become if he stays on the course he showed after February’s All-Star break. It was especially evident in March and April, when Green averaged 22.6 points, 3.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game while shooting 48.4% overall and 39.5% on 3-pointers.

Those numbers were outstanding and helped Green earn the Western Conference Rookie of the Month award, as announced by the NBA.

Green, 20, knows that he has the talent to succeed in the league. The 6-foot-6 guard recognizes that his stretch of scoring 30-plus points in six out of Houston’s last seven games, including a career-high 41 points versus Atlanta in the season’s final game, is something to build on as he heads into the 2022 offseason. Yet, his unselfishness and his yearning for success at a team level will drive him to work harder.

“I think we got a lot better,” Green said of the Rockets’ approach as a team. “You seen where our heart was at, and how we approached every game these last seven or eight games.”

In a season in which Houston (20-62) finished with the league’s worst record, general manager Rafael Stone made it clear in his comments that growth by young players was the biggest priority to the team. With Green as the headliner, the Rockets were largely successful on that front.

As Houston’s rookie class consisting of Green, Sengun, Usman Garuba, and Josh Christopher graduates to become second-year veterans next season, one player in that group has already removed the “rookie” label.

“I really didn’t look at myself as a rookie, I felt like me going to the G League put me in the sophomore class,” Green said with a smile. Green, of course, used the NBA’s newly established G League professional pathway after graduating from high school in 2020. The program allows talented prospects to bypass college basketball and prepare for the NBA by playing and learning for a year in a professional environment.

Known as a very hard worker, Green does have one personal award that would solidify his first NBA season — and that’s being selected as a member of the 2021-22 NBA All-Rookie First Team.

“It would mean a lot,” Green said about the honor. “That would make me very happy and show that the work has been working and how much I have improved from the beginning (of the season) to the end.”