Using surface-level statistics, the fourth season for Rockets guard Jalen Green hasn't been dramatically different than his first three years in the NBA.
This season, Houston's No. 2 overall draft pick from the 2021 first round is averaging 21.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.5 turnovers while shooting 42.5% overall and 34.9% on 3-pointers.
Over his first three years, combined, Green averaged 19.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.3 turnovers per game while shooting 42.1% overall and 33.7% from 3-point range.
But there is more to the story. Clearly, Green's contributions in 2024-25 are contributing to winning, since he's the leading scorer on the No. 2 team in the Western Conference (the Rockets are 48-26 and on the verge of returning to the playoffs for the first time in five years). Improved defense has helped.
But offensively, Green's efficiency in several key areas has improved, even if the top-line statistics haven't dramatically changed. In a new column at ESPN, Jeremy Woo and Chris Herring picked Green as one of this season's breakout players, and they pointed to several areas of growth.
Among their comments:
In the first season of his three-year (contract) extension, Green is playing consistent basketball in a winning context as the team's leader in usage rate. It often takes scoring guards time to turn that corner, and Green has started to figure it out.
Green has upped his efficiency from last season, jumping from the 61st to 68th percentile scoring as a pick-and-roll handler (leading the Rockets in those types of possessions) and, notably, has gone from the 28th to the 60th percentile in spot-ups, per Synergy. Continuing to make better decisions with the ball as well as learning to play without it on a team with plenty of other talented players is a big step in the right direction.
To their point on Green's spot-up shooting and learning to play without the ball, the same ESPN column pegs second-year guard/forward Amen Thompson as a top breakout candidate for next season (2025-26). Should Thompson take another leap — and particularly if he's able to function more at point guard, with the ball in his hands — that could make Green's strides as a shooter all the more important.
After a relatively slow start in November, Green has shown clear growth in efficiency as the 2024-25 season has progressed. In 55 games since Nov. 27, the 23-year-old is scoring 22.6 points per game while shooting 43.9% overall and 36.5% on 3-pointers.
For the Rockets to make a legitimate playoff run in April and potentially beyond, that's the kind of production Houston needs Green to sustain and ideally build upon.
