Rockets' draft day blunder looked better for exactly one day

The Houston Rockets got an explosive performance from Jalen Green in Game 2 against the Warriors.

Their fans breathed a collective sigh of relief. Green doesn't always deliver. He gave the Rockets a stinker in Game 1.

If anything, that's reflective of the Jalen Green experience as a whole.

It's a rollercoaster. Green can look like a superstar. He can also look like a career reserve. Moving forward, the Rockets need him to find a semblance of consistency.

For what it's worth, one of his draft classmates has been consistently excellent.

Could-have-been Rocket wins prestigious award

Yes, I'm talking about Evan Mobley.

He is your 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year. It's a well-deserved distinction. Mobley is a one-man defensive system. His ability to protect the rim and not get exploited in space makes him an NBA unicorn.

He was right there when the Rockets had the second overall pick in 2021.

Some Rockets fans will tell you that the second pick was up in the air. It's revisionist history. While Green did garner some consideration from draft pundits at that spot, the consensus favored Mobley. He was seen as the best prospect at that spot.

So far, that's bearing out.

Rockets should have picked Mobley

In 2024-25, Mobley has a Box Plus/Minus (BPM) of 4.6. Green's BPM is 0.5. This is the first year that he's hit a positive mark, but he's barely there.

You'll find rationalizations. Rockets fans will say that taking an offensive-minded guard over a defensive anchor was sensible. They'll say that Houston wouldn't have selected Alperen Sengun if they hadn't taken Mobley. They'll even say that if they'd taken Mobley, they wouldn't have been able to tank long enough to select Amen Thompson.

Sure. Those are all hypotheticals. Mobley shot 37.0% from three this year - he'd be a good fit with Sengun. If the Rockets had been forced to stop tanking due to Mobley's brilliance, well, that's the outcome you want from a second overall pick. The Rockets likely would have acquired a star to play with Mobley (and potentially Sengun):

Donovan Mitchell, perhaps?

Nobody knows how anything would pan out if the Rockets had made a different choice. What we do know is that Mobley has been a substantially better NBA player than Green.

How mich does it matter?

Rockets doing fine without Mobley

Not too much.

I know. I'm raining on a parade, and then I'm telling the attendants to calm down. Green just had a sensational playoff performance. Why harp on Mobley's success now?

Well, SpaceCityScoop is for passionate fans, and I write as objectively as I can. Mobley is your 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year. The Rockets could have had him, and they passed on him.

Green has made tremendous improvements. He is officially a good NBA player. He's likely to make an All-Star team or two. Still, it would be an exceedingly unlikely development if he had a better career than Mobley:

Even after an explosive performance.