High hopes Green could be top rookie

CAN Fil-Am wingman Jalen Green emerge as next season’s top NBA rookie?

Brian Shaw, his former coach at Ignite in the NBA G League, thinks so.

“He (Green) definitely can (win Rookie of the Year). What he did in the G League competition, averaging a little under 18 points a game, the playoff game that we played against Toronto’s team he had 30 points. They were double, triple-teaming (him), they had five players on their roster that were NBA guys, I think that translates to what we’re going to see,” Shaw said.

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“When you see the athleticism. . . the effortless athleticism that’s he’s gonna bring to the table and the highlights he’s gonna produce this year, he has a great chance of being Rookie of the Year,” he added.

The 6-foot-6 Green was tabbed second overall by Houston in last Friday’s NBA draft.

He said getting drafted by the Rockets at No. 2 meant a lot and admitted he is setting his sights on winning the Rookie of the Year plum.

“It means a lot (to be picked No. 2 overall),” Green said.“It means a lot of work to do, to be locked in and focused on my career and get that Rookie of the Year.”

Green, whose mother is Bree Purganan, a Filipina nurse from Ilocos Sur, had a stellar stint for Ignite last year where he averaged 17.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 15 games for the pioneering select squad under Shaw.

A member of the US teams that won the FIBA Under-17 and FIBA Under-19 World Cups in 2018 and 2019, respectively, Green will link up with the likes of Christian Wood, Kevin Porter Jr., veterans John Wall and Eric Gordon, and fellow rookies Alperen Sengun from Turkey, Usman Garuba from Spain, and former AAU teammate Josh Christopher.

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