Houston Rockets' Jalen Green: NBA's Most Overrated Player?
Houston Rockets third-year guard Jalen Green is still adjusting to life in the NBA.
Maybe because the first two seasons of his career were headlined by a whole lot of losing and very little direction. Under the tutelage of coach Ime Udoka and the guidance of his backcourt teammate Fred VanVleet, Green is playing a whole new brand of basketball ... a winning one.
The Rockets are 8-6, and Green has averaged 19.6 points per game, a smidge less than his 22.1 points per game a year ago. But considering the fact that the team is winning, that stat doesn't matter as much.
Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Despite this, Bleacher Report has named Green one of the seven most overrated players in the league.
"Still just 21 years old, Jalen Green is coming off a season in which he scored 22.1 points per game, and he's now pouring in 19.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest for a Houston Rockets outfit firmly in the mix of the Western Conference playoff picture," Bleacher Report writes.
"Except...Green's 53.8 true shooting percentage and inability to play palatable defense made him a net negative as a sophomore."
Green struggled mightily on the team's three-game road trip when they faced the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, but in the two games since, he's shot the ball far more efficiently, going for 50 percent or better.
The third-year guard still has some growing pains, and at 21 years old, he's allowed to have them. He is still on pace towards becoming a key piece for the Rockets as they grow into a contender.
