Tilman Fertitta Raves About Jalen Green As Next Rockets Superstar

Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta shared his thoughts on Jalen Green's rookie season and his ceiling as the franchise-cornerstone.

The Houston Rockets' future hinges significantly on the development of Jalen Green, who was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. His play during the stretch run of the regular season offered great reason for optimism regarding his ultimate potential.

Green's season finale featured a career-high 41 points against the Atlanta Hawks. He was highly efficient in his performance as he shot 14-26 (53.8 percent) from the floor, 4-11 (36.4 percent) on 3s, and 9-11 (81.8 percent) on free throws while not recording a single turnover. 

The massive scoring performance Green provided the Rockets in his final performance of his rookie campaign was part of a larger hot streak. He reached the 30-point threshold in six of his final seven outings and averaged 22.6 points in his 22 games played since the start of March. 

Green made history along the way. He surpassed Michael Jordan and Bernard Kings for the second-most consecutive 30-point outings by a rookie — coming one shy of tying Allen Iverson for the longest streak in NBA history. 

Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta expressed how ecstatic the organization is with how Green played during his rookie campaign.

“We’re thrilled. We think that (Green) should be the Rookie of the Year,” Fertitta told the Houston Chronicle. “It took him a while to adjust like it takes all rookies. We’re thrilled that he was our pick. I think that whole draft had a bunch of stars in it — it was a deep draft like everybody said it was. I think you’re going to look at the All-Star team in seven or eight years and it’ll be half of the guys from this draft. “

Green got off to a slow start to his rookie campaign with the initial 35 games featuring significantly lower production than how he closed the season. While his averages of 14.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists through 35 games look good on paper for a rookie campaign, there's more to consider. 

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During that 35-game stretch, Green averaged more turnovers (2.3) than assists while shooting just 37.0 percent from the floor and 28.7 percent from beyond the arc. Fertitta went on to share his thoughts on the areas Green impressed the organization as his rookie season played out. 

"What we love about Jalen is — we always know he could score — his defense improved tremendously," Fertitta said. "He started getting more rebounds, he started getting more assists and that’s what we want to see. We want to see the total player and Jalen gave us the improvement that we wanted to see.”

With the Rockets having top odds to land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, there's a lot to like about their future as a franchise. The potential of what Green could become is a substantial part of it.