After a wild yet dramatic offseason, the NBA spotlight is shining on the most active teams. The Milwaukee Bucks for example have a cloud of uncertainty lurking on them. The addition of Damian Lillard has raised burning questions, is this a championship or bust season? Their divisional rivals, the Phoenix Suns face the same intensifying pressure. Then in the land of California, the Los Angeles Lakers with a resurged Anthony Davis and LeBron James have made brave proclamations suggesting the team has finally realized their potential.

However, far in the East, a dormant franchise hasn’t won in three seasons whose zeal seems to have refueled. They are the Houston Rockets. They didn’t make any blockbuster trades, but they have still fallen into the relevancy bubble for the first time since James Harden forced his way out to Brooklyn. Much of that is because of their deep pool of young, thrilling talents combined with influential moves to bring in veterans in the side.

While they added impactful players such as Fred VanVleet and Dillion Brooks to strengthen the experience, their story almost entirely will depend on their youthful core. Amongst those one name has popped up in this offseason after his workouts with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker – Jalen Green.

Entering his third season, the organization has put their hopes in this young and bouncy guard who is expected to make a major leap in the coming months. But is it realistic to assume that he can match the outputs of a Year 3 Anthony Edwards or Ja Morant?

Jalen Green has shown hints, but no real taste of his true potential

It was two years ago in a stacked draft that the Houston Rockets had another top pick. In fact, Green is the highest pick among Houston’s plethora of booming stars. Coming in as a five-star recruit, Green immediately showed promise. He established himself as a dynamite scorer, breaking the 30-point threshold multiple times as a rookie. However, he was still erratic averaging 17.3 points on a mediocre 43% efficiency. His rookie year left the organization hopeful, but there were recognizable improvements to be made – especially as a playmaker.

Those were the barriers set in his sophomore year – the season where most of the stars blossom and show a hint of their ceiling to come. Ja Morant did it when his production jumped up to nearly 20 points a night and his playmaking refined even further. With Ant-Man, it was his vicious drive to take over, an improved sense of responsibility, and the palpable confidence to compete. That’s the benchmark these players are to meet to qualify them to be future superstars in this league.

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Green surely improved, becoming the first option scorer on a young Houston side that lost 60 games. His scoring production jumped to 22 points per game which was the most in the campaign for the Rockets. His elusiveness elevated along with a fearless hop in his step. But he was still choppy and indecisive when it comes to being more than a scorer. In his pursuit to be a certified bucket, Green played very early into the shot clock, most times taking reckless contested jumpers that were unlikely to produce points for the franchise. No doubt some made their way through the hoop, but there was always a more effective play to make that Green just couldn’t realize.

There were stretches of game in which Jalen Green was exactly what the Rockets needed. In 20 instances last season, he averaged 22 points while dishing out more than five assists. The Rockets needed him to do this consistently over the stretch of the season. Instead, he was a careless shot-taker who made only 41% of his attempts. His impact was strictly restricted to scoring, without much attention to adding other tools to his game.

While last season there was room to make these errors, his third season doesn’t give him that liberty to a ‘trial’. It’s the year he either cements himself as the Rockets’ future cornerstone or he becomes a strict scoring shooting guard with no real potential as a distributor.

Will the Kevin Durant and Devin Booker influence elevate Green?

Even when 19, Jalen Green knew the winning mentality in the NBA – taking accountability and responsibility. As Zach Lowe said in his recent ESPN excerpt on the 6’4″ freakish guard called out a veteran to “lead” the Rockets during their slump of losing over 60 games. It’s obvious he hates to lose, but that moment was when the Rockets knew they had a leader for their forces which at the time began with their young group.

While he didn’t ascend as they wanted him to, Green recognizes these voids in his games and attacks them in the offseason. a HUSTLER by heart, he took the right steps a month when he worked with two of the most distinguished and prolific scorers of this era, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. Both the superstars of Phoenix have cemented themselves as the most brute scorers who can make winning plays on any given day. But it isn’t just their supernatural ability to put the ball in the hoop that makes them such threats. Both Booker and KD have polished skills in the mid-range and know how to utilize their strengths to break down defenses. But more than anything, they are willing playmakers who will choose to make the extra pass rather than take a tough contested shot early into the clock.

That is what Jalen Green was exposed to in these months. Two offensive barbarians who showed him how to be an effective offensive mind and not just a greedy scorer. Who could have been a better mentor for the 21-year-old slasher? Observing their routines and mindset, he should have picked up on their innate sense to identify off-ball movements to score the ball. It isn’t always necessary to have the ball in hand to make an impact. At the end of the day, basketball is a game of the mind as much as it is a physical battle. So far, Green had shown no instincts when playing off the ball. Even a simple cut can disrupt the defense and get either him or his teammate a better look.

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Being the primary scorer, that is the degree of attention defenses will be compelled to give him if he develops these facets of his game. There is no obstruction in his developments, it is simply his narrow vision of every play. When driving, he fails to see the movement of his teammates in his pacy steps. If he does, they often become readable. It is when Green is composed and takes controlled steps that he can broaden his horizon to scan the entire floor. That’s what he needs to work on. To be more consistent and utilize the entire 24 seconds rather than overthink and take shots out of panic.

The time is now for Green

Now, there will be an urgency for Jalen Green to deliver on these promises. He claims to be ready, and that’s exactly what the attached expectations with the Rockets this season. They have high-picked prospects, a veteran presence, and three young stars whose much-awaited jump is impending.

It’s not just Green who has the burden to improve. After an excellent showing in the Summer League, a lot will be expected from Jabari Smith Jr. Moreover, there is a young Nikole Jokic on the Rockets who goes by Alperen Sengun. The near 7-foot center is a modern prototype of the position who stays composed under pressure and makes the right reads almost every time. These three talents must assume heavier roles now that they are mature and accustomed to the NBA’s nuances.

Their output will be the blueprint for guys such as Tari Eason and Amen Thompson, the major young forces that shoot the Houston Rockets into the ‘underdog’ territory.

Not only is Green expected to lead by example, but he is also seen as a leader for the young core that the Rockets vaunt. There will be an evident ambiguity around Green’s capability to excel like a Morant or Edwards. It all depends on how in detail he studied the intricate movements and patterns of Kevin Durant and Booker while training with them. If done right, he can be the statement star of the coming season. If not, it could be time for the Rockets to find that piece, even if it means moving on from the Green experiment.

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Everything rides on the 21-year-old’s shoulders. The uncertainty remains – is Green ‘the guy’? If he can maintain his composure and add to his already well-rounded scoring game, play tenacious defense, and inspire his teammates in the upcoming season, the answer is yes.