Rockets GM defends Jalen Green: 'One playoff series doesn't define a player'

Speaking to reporters, including Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required), at an end-of-season press conference on Tuesday, general manager Rafael Stone defended Green, noting that “one playoff series doesn’t define a player.”

“Jalen didn’t have the series that he wanted to have, or we didn’t,” Stone said. “But I think it’s a little bit of a double-edged sword in terms of trying to evaluate it, because their goal going into the series was to take him out, and that was obvious.

“… We are not a team built around any one player offensively, whether Jalen or Alperen (Sengun) or Amen (Thompson) or Fred (VanVleet). And so if your goal is to take out one of our players, in theory, what should happen is that our other players should just punish it. And (head coach) Ime (Udoka) frequently talks to the guys about inviting double teams: hit the guy, and you’re the sacrificial lamb. And so, you know, in some games we punished it. In some games we didn’t, and one of the games we ended up with great spacing, and we were able to punish it with him.”

Udoka acknowledged that Green went through some “growing pains” in the postseason as the Warriors focused more defensive attention on him and said he has talked to the 23-year-old about areas to focus on this summer.

“I think physically getting stronger to absorb contact on some of his drives when he has the advantage, or finishing at the rim when he does get the driving lane, all those things are things we talked about with him going into the offseason,” Udoka said, per Lerner. “And (being) able to use him off ball a little bit more, and you got to get a little bit stronger as far as that because they took him out of some of those actions where they couldn’t trap him.”

While Green was more effective during the regular season than in the playoffs, there were still some troubling trends evident over the larger 82-game sample. Most notably, Houston had a +9.4 net rating when he was off the court, the highest off-court mark for any player on the roster. The team was a modest +2.8 during Green’s minutes.

“That’s a really flawed question,” Stone said when asked specifically about that on/off-court data. “I can make data say whatever I want it to say. And so, you know, I think we heavily use it but we’re very careful to try and really parse it out. And I would say that some of our very best lineups include him and so that piece by itself, I just think that’s just, yeah, that’s just not correct.”

The three-year, $105MM+ rookie scale extension that Green signed last fall will go into effect this July, so his cap hit will increase from $12.5MM this past season to $33.3MM in 2025/26.

Here are a few more highlights from Tuesday’s presser featuring Stone and Udoka:

• The most pressing question in Houston this offseason is whether the front office will be looking to pursue a star on the trade market. Addressing that subject on Tuesday, Stone didn’t rule out the possibility, but suggested it’s not Plan A for the front office. “I will give you an inside betting tip that I think continuity is very, very likely,” the Rockets’ GM said, according to Lerner (subscription required). “Last summer, we didn’t make changes because we were really comfortable with where we were, and we’d seen really good things from our team in terms of kind of a good progression. And I think we saw more of the same this year. So I think the bar to make changes is very high.”
• Stone did offer an important caveat to his comments about continuity: “I think continuity for continuity’s sake isn’t what we’re trying to achieve. Continuity is great, but the goal ultimately is to build a championship team. And if we think that there’s a move or a series of moves that make it more likely we will be that then, then we would ignore continuity, and we do those moves.”
   
• Stone also observed that trading for an impact player doesn’t guarantee he “will be the same player in our environment that (he was) in the last one,” meaning the Rockets would proceed with caution and would be seeking the right fit if they go that route. As for whether or not Houston would target a player who fits the timeline of its young core in that hypothetical scenario, Stone confirmed that would be a consideration but not necessarily a deciding factor. “It’s more important how good you are and what you can bring,” he said. “But we do want to be very competitive for as long as we possibly can.”
• Referring to this year’s Rockets as governor Tilman Fertitta‘s “favorite team he’s ever had,” Stone expressed confidence in the young core’s ability to continue improving after taking a significant step forward in 2024/25. “I think we’re on a very solid trajectory,” Stone said, per ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. “But just because you’ve done it in the past doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to do it in the future. So, we have to continue to put in the work, which kind of starts on an individual basis, and not just with our players, (but) myself, my staff. We have to figure out around the edges, are there things we can do, including doing nothing. We have to do our jobs. Ime and his staff, they have to do theirs. We all have to come back a little better next year. But today, I’m very comfortable with our progression.”
• Veteran center Steven Adams will be an unrestricted free agent this summer after playing a key role off the bench — his +9.4 net rating during the regular season and +14.1 mark in the postseason were both team highs. According to Stone, bringing back Adams will be an offseason priority for the front office. “He’s a really important part of the group, and kind of the continuity I talked about and the value earlier, he’s an important part of that,” Stone said, per Jonathan M. Alexander of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). “It’s a two-way street. He has to want to be here. Every indication we have is that he does.”
• In case you missed it, Stone also expressed optimism on Tuesday that VanVleet will “be with us for the foreseeable future.” The Rockets and VanVleet are reportedly exploring pushing back the decision deadline for his $44.9MM team option.