The Rockets were smart to keep Jalen Green but now they have a big decision to make

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.

The Houston Rockets are arguably the hottest team in the NBA right now and Jalen Green is one of the most important reasons why.

Houston has now won eight games in a row and Green was recently named Western Conference Player of the Week. As the Rockets continue to make a push for a spot in the play-in tournament, the explosion from Green is hard to ignore.

It wasn’t long ago that Green was at the center of trade rumors around the deadline. In fact, per Shams Charania, the Rockets and Nets even discussed a deal that could have sent Green (and multiple first-round picks) to Brooklyn in exchange for Mikal Bridges.

The Nets reportedly decided to pass on the offer, which was a blessing in disguise for the Rockets. His value today is already quite a bit higher than it was just a couple months ago.

But it’s the timing of his stellar play that is especially fascinating for the former No. 2 overall pick, who has now emerged as arguably the best player to come from the soon-to-be defunct G League Ignite program. The guard has played particularly well since Houston’s Alperen Sengun was sidelined due to injury.

Some important stats to consider: Green is averaging 27.6 points per 100 possessions during the minutes he has played alongside Sengun this season, per PBPStats. He is averaging 38.2 points per 100 when he is playing without the big man.

Not only are the Rockets playing faster but Green also gets a much larger offensive role when Sengun is not on the court.

His usage rate is 25.3 percent with the big man and 33.8 percent without the big. This gives him an opportunity to play with the ball in his hands and over the past five games, no NBA player has scored more points per game on pull-up shooting.

Green and Sengun, teammates selected in the 2021 NBA Draft, are eligible for contract extensions this offseason. It will become expensive to pay all of their young core, but that’s undeniably a good problem to have.

Houston will have some big decisions to make as the Rockets determine if the long-term pairing of the two players makes sense. They may need more time to figure that out, though it’s better to have too many players excelling than the opposite.

Future NBA players in March Madness

After two rounds of the March Madness tournament behind us, scouts have had countless games to study and several players have stood out.

While there were a few early exits involving the biggest names in this draft class (like Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham), many of the top prospects are still dancing. Even if it isn’t the best idea to put too much weight in a small sample size, it’s inevitable that some will move up and down draft boards due to how they perform.

Based on what evaluators have seen so far, here are some of the future pros who are heating up when it matters most.