USA Basketball’s Grant Hill impressed by play of Houston’s Jalen Green

After watching Jalen Green this week, @usabasketball managing director Grant Hill tells the Houston Chronicle: “He played well. He’s dynamic. He’s explosive. He’s very confident.”

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Third-year Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green earned praise from media observers for his recent play with the U.S. Select Team, and it appears the higher-ups with USA Basketball agree.

As part of Select Team duties, Green and other young NBA talents such as Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren scrimmaged and practiced against the men’s senior national team as it prepared for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

With Cunningham operating as a point guard and lead ballhandler, Green worked in more of an off-ball capacity relative to his 2022-23 role with the Rockets. But Green appeared to thrive in that usage. That could bode well for a 2023-24 season in which Green will line up in the backcourt with a new point guard Fred VanVleet.

Grant Hill, formerly an NBA star and now managing director of the USA Basketball men’s national team, was impressed by Green’s play. Hill tells Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:

He played well. He was one of the few guys that I had not seen in person. I obviously had seen him in highlights and on videos, even going back to high school. He’s dynamic. He’s explosive. He’s very confident.

A skilled and really talented player, he might not have been featured as much … but there were some moments. There were situations where you saw his gifts and his talents. It was very impressive.

Hill pointed to the arrival of VanVleet and new head coach Ime Udoka as reasons to believe in the continued growth of Green, who might be in line for more U.S. national team work in the future.

“All of that, for a guy like Jalen, is a great chance for him to really grow,” Green told Feigen. “I think he’s ready, and that team is ready to take a step this season.” Read the complete interview here.

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