Lets talk about Jalen Green, I have seen far too many posts and comments that I absolutely do not agree with. I am sure you have seen these posts saying he is ass, or that KPJ would be a better option if he was still around, or we should just straight up trade him.

Much of this is coming from our few game slide and his subsequent benching in yesterday’s 4th quarter. I know he does not play an insanely efficient game but he is also still learning a new role and has to find how he fits.

Very important: This post is not me saying he was wrongfully benched or blindly defending him without reason. He has not been adjusting well and something does need to be done to increase his efficiency, or have him impact the game in ways other than his scoring. I am making this post both for myself and for others to think through the recent hate that Jalen specifically has been receiving.

Also, this is a dumb analogy but please indulge me. Feel free to skip.

Imagine you are a car salesman and you work off commission. Past years you have been the top seller, the star of the company, but the entire company itself is still struggling to turn a profit and the business may close soon. A new manager comes in and tells you that your role is going to change to help streamline the process, things are looking up because you brought in some other great salesman to the group and you can all begin working together. All the new manager is asking is for you to make contact with customers and in cases where you cant make a quick deal, pass them off to others to close out the deal that are better at negotiating than you have been. He makes these statements and promises that you may come out with less personal gain at this moment because you are making less off commission, but this works the company as a whole can start paying you a base salary and plus commission that would put you in a less stressful situation financially than you currently are.

Jalen Green is in a position he has NEVER been in his entire CAREER, not AAU, not HS, and not post grad at G League Ignite. He is being asked to play gritty, do the little things that go unnoticed, and make his team better while not being in the spotlight. And we are 12 games into the season. You people calling him ass or that we need to trade him clearly are not true Rockets fans. Sure if he isn’t playing great and still making mental lapses then bench him. He may make mental lapses and take the same bad shots as previous years, but past seasons he NEEDED to take those shots, many of the times him barrelling to the rim uncontrolled was actually one of the better options for us to score.

Again it is 12 games into the season he needs time to learn, back to my stupid analogy, I would hope the new sales manager coming in (Coach Udoka) would not completely throw their old star employee to the side because he couldn’t adapt 2 weeks into his new job. He very much could benefit from seeing how others do things, and I hope the same happens for Jalen, but it’s going to take time. He has not been pouty with his change of role, I have seen him interacting with the guys and celebrating wins just the same whether he was the star or not, he seems like he is focused on basketball and putting in the work with no off court issues (aside from that one video …lol), and he seems to very much enjoy being a Rocket.

Please if you are a true Rockets fan I implore you support the team and its players. Good teams are built from the ground up through the draft, with years of experience playing together. Recent champions like the Nuggets, Warriors, and Bucks have shown that, and you see it again with the teams leading the league this season (Celtics, 76ers, Timblerwolves, Thunder). These things are not a coincidence, very rarely are you going to complete overhaul your team just bring stars in and make it work.

Go Rockets