Houston Rockets: Jae’Sean Tate needs to emulate Draymond Green

Houston Rockets: How Jae’Sean Tate and Draymond Green are similar

To quickly get it out of the way, both Jae’Sean Tate and Draymond Green are from the midwest (Michigan and Ohio), went to a Big Ten school (Michigan State and Ohio State), and spent four years at their respective universities. In fact, both were born in cities that reside along interstate 75 and are around an hour out of Detroit, Green to the north in Saginaw and Tate to the south in Toledo.

Outside of trivial geographical trivia about the two, the pair are both incredibly strong players who use their weight and length to defend up the spectrum while also remaining quick enough to defend players who are dangerous on the perimeter. Green does own a size edge, listed at 6’6 with a 7’1 wingspan compared to Tate who stands 6’4 with a 6’8 wingspan, but Tate makes up for it with a level of explosiveness that Green could only dream of.

Both players are defensively versatile with Tate better suited to defend the perimeter and Green more adept in the paint, but the ability to cover multiple positions remains their calling cards. While the physical and defensive abilities of Tate are reminiscent of Green, it is on offense where the two might share the most similarities.

Draymond Green has never been a knockdown jump shooter and it looks like Tate will suffer a similar fate. As much as jump shooting has become the most coveted skill in the NBA if the rest of a player’s skill set is well-rounded enough they can overcome a streaky jumper.

For Tate to reach the levels that Green has, absent a miraculous uptick in his shooting, he is going to need to continue to be a dangerous defender and come along as a playmaker. It is in playmaking that Tate’s ceiling can be raised, and looking at how Green came along in this department, it could be a roadmap for his development.

Next: How to unleash Jae’Sean Tate the playmaker