Jalen Green is hosting his own players-only minicamp this week. Is it the first step towards becoming the leader the team needs? Green may not have been the Houston Rockets’ best player last season—that was unquestionably Turkish sensation Alperen Sengun. But Green showed potential as the showcase talent within head coach Ime Udoka‘s system in 2024. Assuming Green can carry that momentum into 2024-25, the next step would be establishing himself as more than just a talent. He now needs to establish himself as a leader.
Jalen Green’s Minicamp: A Leadership Course?
Hosting A Player’s Minicamp
The specific focus of Green’s minicamp this week isn’t entirely clear. Team cohesion? Player skills? It may be that it doesn’t have one. Whatever the case, the young Rockets are getting the chance to work on their games in a team environment. That’s never a bad thing. Human wrecking ball Tari Eason appears to be further solidifying his position as the resident glue guy. Sengun is sporting his much-improved fluency with the English language.
“𝘼𝙡𝙥𝙞 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧! 𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚?” –@TAR13ASON 😂
the half-court battle continues! pic.twitter.com/LNcEs86y0R
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) August 12, 2024
But what feels perhaps more important than anything else about this minicamp is that the host is Green. Could the biggest thing that the young team gets out of the exercise be a new leader?
Next season, the Rockets can’t afford to rely so much on the steady stewardship of veteran lead guard Fred VanVleet. As good as VanVleet is, his style of risk-averse decision-making and limited explosiveness put severe limitations on the ceiling of the offense in a lead ball-handler role. Green could launch the Rockets straight through that ceiling.
Green’s Player of the Month stretch last season in March had many of the hallmarks of standard post All-Star break flukiness. Sengun got injured, and the team’s record had seemingly drifted down out of competitiveness. A new, unscouted lineup was being experimented with, and the schedule had meandered into a more forgiving stretch.
A New Papa’s Pride
The talk at the time though was mainly about one thing. Green had figured it out. Specifically, he’d done so because he was a father now. The connection was certainly made more appealing on account of Green’s backcourt mentor. VanVleet’s shooting slump for the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 playoffs looked likely to force him out of the rotation. Raptors head coach Nick Nurse faced plenty of scrutiny for choosing to stay with him. But then, all of a sudden, it started to pay off. And it just so happened to be right after the birth of VanVleet’s son.
There’s certainly some appreciable logic to the idea. The period around the birth of a child is a life-altering, even life-defining experience. NBA players, like all men, naturally have it pretty easy compared with the women involved. But it still makes its mark. Nerves, uncertainty, and anticipation give way—all in one screaming, yet exulting moment—to relief, pride, and a sense of purpose that will stay with you until the day you die. It really does change a man. While it might feel very silly to think about that change specifically in the context of how he performs on a basketball court, there is, presumably, some crossover.
All that is to say, Green is still a young man full of potential. He may not have demonstrated much visible leadership in his career to date. That doesn’t mean that he couldn’t do so in the future.
Jalen Green Isn’t The First Rocket To Host A Minicamp
Houston icon James Harden was a young man himself when he first arrived in Texas. He had to develop into the leader that he became. Harden’s leadership resume obviously doesn’t have the accolades attached to it that LeBron James‘ does. But LeBron is one of the best leaders in the sport since the great Bill Russell. Most of the truly greatest players were great leaders in some way. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had their own ways of marshalling the troops and commanding ultimate respect. Where Larry Bird went, the Boston Celtics followed.
Harden was never any of that. But when the Charles Barkley-proclaimed “best leader in the NBA”, Chris Paul, turned up in Houston, he deferred to Harden. And that hierarchy almost took Houston to its third ever championship, against perhaps the most loaded NBA roster ever assembled. What was one thing Harden did? Like Jalen Green, he hosted players-only minicamps.
The Last Word
Green’s ongoing contract uncertainty could either help him or hinder him in his quest for leadership qualities next season. It could function as an understandable distraction, foster resentment with the organization, or encourage a spirit of unhealthy competition with costar Sengun. On the other hand, if he can demonstrate a willingness to relegate it to the background and focus on the game and the team, it could be a crucial step to establishing his leadership. Green might still prove himself to be the leader that Houston needs after all.
