Jalen Green nearly won Western Conference Player of the Month honors after a spectacular March, during which he led the Houston Rockets to an 11-game winning streak while averaging nearly 30 points per game. Yet, a month earlier, head coach Ime Udoka hinted that he was considering taking Green out of the starting lineup.
It’s that kind of up-and-down play that makes Green’s performance hard to fully project entering his fourth NBA season this fall. But HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina is seemingly a believer.
In HoopsHype’s positional rankings for the 2024-25 season, Green checks in at No. 9 in the league at shooting guard, and he’s just ahead of big names such as Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat; CJ McCollum of the New Orleans Pelicans; and Bradley Beal of the Phoenix Suns.
From HoopsHype, the explanation of Green’s ranking:
One of the big question marks in the NBA. The former No. 2 overall pick looked like a max player for a stretch of games late in the season. Our own Mark Deeks even wrote about it back in late March:
“Since March began, Green has averaged 28.5 points per game, fourth in the league behind only Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jayson Tatum, and ahead of the greats such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant, and Nikola Jokic. He has done so on 50.8% shooting and with a 63.1% true-shooting clip, playing with unbridled confidence and coming up with big plays in the clutch, often against quality opposition. He has for three weeks been the nightly game-changing factor that the Rockets always hoped he would be.”
Green eventually cooled off as the Rockets missed the play-in tournament. But even so, it was a very impressive — and important — stretch for the G League Ignite product, who played some of the best basketball of his career.
And yet, Houston still opted not to extend him this summer. And we still have mounds of evidence that Green, a career 42.1% shooter from the floor, isn’t all that efficient of a player.
Regardless, we’re choosing to believe in that elite run of form as evidenced by where we have him ranked, and think he might be able to tap into that efficient stretch from late last season more often in 2024-25. After all, he’s an explosive athlete with good length and skill. He just needs to get much more adept with his scoring to truly take the next step.
🚨 NEW SEASON RANKING 🚨
Our picks for the Top 30 shooting guards in 2024-25.https://t.co/3t4yEcYEKR
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) August 6, 2024
It’s worth noting that the decision not to extend Green’s contract (at least not yet) could be motivated by financial considerations at a team level that are unrelated to his personal performance.
Even so, it’s safe to say that the upcoming 2024-25 campaign is a big one for the trajectory of Green’s career in the NBA.
Can he build on that run of elite form in March? We’ll find out soon, with training camp set to begin in late September.
