Embracing struggles
Rookie guard Green getting taste of professional defenses in preseason
The struggles are not just inevitable, they are the point. So, Jalen Green ran headlong into a defense poised to lock him up, had more turnovers (7) than shots (6) and knew enough, after just three preseason games and the video session and practice that followed, to consider the experience valuable.
This will be the way for the prized Rockets rookie, though there will be good times to go with the bad.
It is all new, especially before he even gets to his regular-season debut next Wednesday in Minnesota. Learning to swim in the deep end is supposed to be difficult. Green, with one more preseason game to prepare Friday in San Antonio, seemed to welcome that.
“I think everything is a learning experience,” he said. “Every time you get on that court, you learn something that you didn’t know before, that you could have done better. These past two games, I’m just learning the spots on defense and the offense, where to attack and stuff like that.
“I think Toronto was probably the hardest defense that we had. That was our first time seeing that this year. It’s early. We still have a lot to figure out. I think we’re going to be good, though.”
It is earlier than early, as he seemed to realize. There will be plenty of first times ahead. The goal seemed to be to go through them and get the benefits of each experience, the motivation of the Rockets’ determination to start him and give him the playing time to develop.
“They were just clogging the lane,” Green said. “I don’t think we saw that yet this year. It’s only two games before that.
“Just the physicality, honestly. That was a hard game. They were big. They crowded the lane. We just had to adjust. It’s preseason. We still got a lot to figure out.”
Green has averaged 12.3 points on 34.3 percent shooting in the Rockets’ three preseason games, having to generate most of his looks on his own as the Rockets work to execute offensively to free him.
“I could be more decisive, lock up on defense a little bit more, knowing the spots,” Green said. “And then, just looking at different options on offense to score, different ways to score in the offense and not be so isolation all the time.”
He might not have seen defenses game-planning specifically to slow him, but the Heat and Raptors excel with tightly tied team defenses, filling the strong side to require sharp ball movement.
In summer league, when the Pistons wrapped a double-team around Green, he not only read it quickly, but he also moved the ball to effectively set up teammates while still finding his scoring opportunities. In the past two preseason games, he often struggled to get loose, with the Rockets bunching up in ways that made it even more difficult to execute.
“It’s the way they play defense is hard for anybody to play against,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “They are really tilted to the strong side. There were certain instances Jalen was coming off the screen and there were three guys committing to him. Our spacing … wasn’t great on the weak side. Making the plays to the weak side was a little bit harder. Hopefully, we cleaned that up (Wednesday) with the video.
“The way that they play is hard to play against. Miami, Toronto, New York, those are teams that get after you defensively so it was a good challenge for us as a group to have to go against that and then, make the reads and make the adjustments as we go through.”
The Rockets’ struggles to execute Monday were far from only about their rookie finding his way. But while all young players need to go through the difficulties that come as they see various strategies and schemes for the first time, if Green struggles, he will keep playing. That will require that he maintain his confidence and resilience no matter what hurdles he hits.
“That’s everybody,” Silas said. “We have to be a confident group regardless of the ups and downs of the season and the adversities we feel, kind of go through.
“For him and everybody we’re going to go through some things that aren’t going to be great. We can’t have the dips. There may be slight dips in confidence. It’s our ability to bounce back from those moments that is going to prove whether we are ready or not.”
After his first taste of one of the “dips,” Green looked at the bright side. It was one of those “learning experiences” he will have to collect. Besides, he might be in the NBA for just a few weeks, but he already will soon experience that in the NBA, there is always another game coming to bounce back.