MANILA, Philippines – Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green believes it will be a better outing for his team as he enters his sophomore year in the NBA.
Coming off a rookie season where the Rockets finished with the worst record in the league at 20-62, Green hopes to step it up a notch both individually and as a team.
"I think it's a little bit of everything, you know?" Green told Philstar.com on what he learned in the offseason during an online call with Philippine media organized by NBA 2K on Tuesday.
"Scoring the ball, trying to play defense, [trying] to instill the winning mentality this year — for sure." he added.
Green, who also visited the Philippines during the offseason, came out with two big games for the Rockets in their preseason matchups where they ended up with a 3-1 record.
Though acknowledging that Houston remains an underdog owing to their inexperience, Green knows that his will to win, along with his teammates, can be enough to throw in some surprises this year.
"Everyone already knows that we're a super young team, you know, we're not really expected to win a lot of games, it's just not in our favor but I think we got a lot of young talent, and a lot of guys who wanna win on the team right now," said Green.
"I feel like we just all bought in, I think it's gonna be very different this year, I think we're gonna push this season, going with how we can play and that we can win games," he added.
The 20-year-old also set a personal goal for himself after getting into the NBA All-Rookie First Team in the 2021-22 NBA season.
"All-Star," Green said of his goal.
Last season, Green played 67 games for the Rockets where he posted norms of 17.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists.