Rockets' young standout talks importance of mental health

A lot comes with being a young kid in the NBA. Then, you add that some guys are brought into different situations, whether they play or don't play, win or don't win.

Everyone's situation is different.

Even coming into the league at 19-years-old, the youngest rookies are when they are selected in this new "one and done" age of the NBA draft, and your mental health can take a hit. Everything can take a toll on you and your mental.

The league is a non-stop grind to see who can be the best, and there is only room for one winner every year. Sometimes, you can lose yourself in that grind. You can let the game consume you and take over your mental health.

Recently, Rockets forward Tari Eason spoke about one of the most important things as a rookie last year being his mental health.

Houston Rockets' young standout talks importance of mental health

"The biggest thing is just taking care of my mental," Eason told The Athletics' Kelly Iko. "There are so many ups and downs in the season — losing, not having games that you necessarily did well, things like that.

There's just a lot of ups and downs in a season that you don't have in college. One, because you win more, and two, because you obviously don't play that long. So with me, just learning the mental aspect of the game, those are the things I'm really trying to lock in on."

And for Eason, he was thrust into a situation in Houston that somewhat helped him.

"I'm someone who I think is pretty mentally tough as is, but being able to go to Houston in a rebuilding situation allowed me to play," Eason continued. "A lot of rookies don't necessarily have that opportunity. Me being able to play with a young team, me being able to go out there and learn from my mistakes, it was really huge in my developmental process."

At the end of the day, that's what it is all about. The Rockets, with a median age of just under 25, are one of the youngest teams in the league.

They are also a team with one of the highest ceilings when their young guys all reach their full potential.

So, the developmental process is huge for those guys. Eason is developing well, and a large reason why is because of how he has been able to stay even-keeled and keep his mental health in check.

With Eason on it, all of that will end up making this roster one full of talented guys that can eventually compete for something big.