We all know it’s “just” the summer league, but I am still shocked how many points Rockets’ rookie Donte Greene scored in his first game as a Rocket Monday night in Las Vegas. 40 points on 12-of-20 shooting (5-of-10 from 3-point land), and 11-of-12 free throws. That’s still much more than anyone would have thought he would have scored so early in his career. And he did it all after signing his contract with the Rockets just 5 minutes before the game started.

I don’t want to get carried away, but could he bring McGrady-esque scoring to the Rockets’ bench this season? Could he be the Rockets’ version of Monta Ellis, who quickly blossomed as a rookie scorer off the bench, contributing to Golden State’s amazing upset in the 2007 playoffs of the Mavericks? If Greene keeps scoring like this, he’ll make everyone forget about that Rudy Gay trade last season, and Daryl Morey will be named GM of the Year.

Here’s some of Greene’s highlight reel scores, courtesy of ClutchFans

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 1:08 am and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.