A chunk of the NBA’s productive 2021-22 rookie class are still teenagers or players who just turned 20, less than two years removed from their high school graduation. That makes New Orleans’ crop of rookies a bit of an anomaly. Herbert Jones and Jose Alvarado played four years of college basketball. Trey Murphy III spent three years on campus.
That helps explain why when Willie Green was asked about Alvarado’s adjustment to the NBA, the first-year New Orleans head coach referenced the point guard’s lengthy career at Georgia Tech.
“Even though he’s a first-year (NBA) player, he’s an experienced first-year player,” Green said Thursday of Alvarado.