After a home win over the Spurs, the Rockets are on a three-game winning streak and seem to have crawled out of the quagmire once again to show their dynamism. As of now, the Rockets' record has come to 11-9, and they are also back in the 7th place in the West in terms of rankings, however, since the wins from 7th to 10th in the West are exactly the same, the Rockets still can't take it lightly, because once there is chaos in the short term, they will fall behind quickly, for the Rockets, they need to maintain their current momentum, and if they want to make the playoffs, they can't miss any opportunity to move up the rankings. 22 million in 2 years, goodbye rockets, and being abandoned many times, it's hard for you to be the core leader of Houston in the future.
Although the Rockets won, to be honest, this victory is still difficult to be satisfied with, and to put it mildly, the Rockets have achieved an "ugly" victory. On the one hand, the Rockets are facing a team that is bottom of the West and has suffered a 16-game losing streak (17 in a row after a loss). On the other hand, the performance of the Rockets themselves is also very bad, if it weren't for the Spurs being too bad, but if the Rockets face other teams with a little bit of ability, it is estimated that they will overturn at home. The Rockets themselves only have 3 players scoring in double figures, and none of them have 20 points, their offensive efficiency is low, there are many turnovers, and the overall performance is very poor, and their core guard Jalen Green was directly abandoned in the final quarter.
Shooting 2 of 10, including 1 of 4 three-pointers, Green only got 7 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist, and his on-court plus/minus was only -14, in other words, when Green was off the court, the Rockets won by a full 25 points, which is how the Rockets should perform against the bottom team. It's a pity that instead of providing any help to the Rockets when Green was there, he became a burden to the Rockets. In the final quarter, Green did not get any chance to play, and this is not the first time Green has had this embarrassing experience this season, he has been pressed to the bench many times in the final quarter, so you can imagine how disappointing Green's performance was.
In fact, in the eyes of many people, the Rocket's list is a waste. It's just that there are still some fans who expect Green when he breaks out. But when it comes to consistency, Grinch is very bad, don't look at the 11 regular season games in which he scored more than 20 points this season, and he has scored 10 points or less in 6 games, this extremely inconsistent performance wants to be the core of a team, unless the team is a bad team. But obviously, now the Rockets have become one of the contenders for the playoffs, and Green's play, in the words of fans, is the attribute of "nerve knife", and often players with this attribute, the sixth man on the bench, is his best positioning.
Even if the offense is unstable, on the defensive end, Green does not meet Udoka's requirements at all, he is not tough enough, not smart enough, and even in the face of confrontation, he will sometimes choose to avoid because of fear, which makes people's scalp tingle, Udoka has hidden Green many times in the final quarter, this is not unreasonable, if it is not really unbearable, the team coach is unlikely to have this kind of move, or has this practice many times. Green is now in an embarrassing situation, and in the past, fans only complained about his performance and were dissatisfied with his performance. Now, Green has repeatedly caused dissatisfaction with the Rockets coaching staff, and the team management has listened to Udoka's advice when recruiting to form the team.
From this point of view, Green's future in the Rockets is really becoming more and more uncertain, because if the Rockets want to impact the playoffs, they need to improve the bench and improve the overall combat power. If the Rockets' goal is to challenge for a championship in the future, they should also establish a core and find a superstar who can really carry the banner, and this person will not be Green, who does not have such potential. To put it bluntly, no matter what kind of goal the Rocket has, Green's positioning in the Rocket is very embarrassing.
From Harden's departure to Udoka's arrival, the Rockets have experienced a three-year pendulum period, although compared to many fish-belly teams, the Rockets' pendulum period is very short. However, considering that they used to have the title of "Texas can't beat the little powerhouse", the Rockets, as a perennial playoff team in the West, have been holding back for too long, no matter what the team's future goal is, whether it is to continue to impact the playoffs or want to impact the championship, they should look for another core person after Harden. For now, the interior combination of Shin Kyung and Jabari Smith Jr. is the core first choice under the Rockets' current roster, and the future of Jalen Green is difficult to guess.