Bradley Beal didn’t fit with Devin Booker, so will Jalen Green?

Bradley Beal didn’t fit with Devin Booker, so will Jalen Green?

It feels good. You know, a team that is excited to have me, an organization that’s excited to have me. Um, it’s a good feeling. Um, they understand and know what I could bring to this table and, uh, they’re ready to capitalize right now just like I am. I’m ready to capitalize on the court and do what I got to do to help this organization. So, um, yeah, it’s a good feeling and it goes both ways. Jaylen Green talking to the media last week at, uh, summer league up in Las Vegas. I don’t know what he said, but I assume it was something good. Talking about the Suns wanting him. A lot of uh a lot of atmospheric noise going on there. Ambiance. Ambiance. Uh that’s one of the big questions is and and one of the questions coming out of the Kevin Durant trade from Phoenix to Houston is how does Jaylen Green fit? Now, we talked to Shane Young earlier from Forbes. He said he had uh inklings, intel, the Bradley Beal thing’s coming sometime this week. It is Wednesday as he pointed out. That clears up things a little bit at the guard position. Although Gambo has followed up that inkling that’s out there by saying when that’s a done deal, the Suns are going to go out and get a guard. Um it’s not going to be these guys, but it’s going to be a combo guard maybe or a point guard and then they’re going to be done. But Jaylen Green is going to be here. the the the first thought when that deal went down was, “Oh, they’re just going to spin Jaylen Green off somewhere else.” It’s not the case. How does Jaylen Green fit with Devin Booker is one of the biggest questions going into this season for the Suns? And the followup, how does he fit? And why will he fit better than Bradley Beal did? I’m not sure he will. I’m not I I can I can I don’t have a crystal ball. You could turn an ankle at any point, but Jaylen Green the last two years has played 82 games. His entire career he has started every game he’s ever played. He’s a 20 point per game scorer. He’s only 23 years of age. The the potential is there. His ceiling’s extremely high still. He can’t play the one though. I mean that the his four-year career in Houston pretty much has told us that he is a classic shooting guard. Like Bradley Beal and Booker, they could shift over and handle that. Maybe not to great team success, but they could do it. Yeah. I’m I’m on record. I I’m I continue to worry about Devin Booker playing the one. I don’t think I I just I just I don’t think he’s quite as he’s not Deon Booker when he has those responsibilities. He’s he’s shown flashes of being great at it. I think overall Devin Booker is serviceable as a as a one. And when we’ve seen it, the Suns have been pressed into using him at the one during his career and you live with the results. I I mean, I don’t think you want to go into a season at day one with Deon Booker as your point guard. I agree with you, but it it looks like from a roster standpoint, it’s almost unavoidable right now. Or if Jaylen Green is going to play and he’s going to start, he’s going to start. Yeah. Like you’re not bringing Jay, you’re not going to sign a veteran point guard, whoever that may be, and then bring Jaylen Green off the bench. Nor are you going to put Booker at the three. They tried that last year. Yeah. With Tus Jones. So 36 games. Hypothetically speaking, because it’s been reported it’s not going to happen. But if they signed Chris Paul, it would You think he would be coming off the bench? Not Jaylen Green. Chris Paul. I think I mean I know Chris Paul is coming off a season where he started 82 games. I think if he was in the fold with all the parameters you just gave, he would be a bench player. I think so too because I don’t I don’t think you’re not I don’t they’re not going to bring Green off the bench and you don’t want to play Booker at the three. So on So on what you just said about the biggest advantage Green has is his health over Beal. When Beal and Booker did play together in the same back court, did you think that worked? Oh, cuz they’re the same. Booker and Beal are both mid-range like players and Booker is a better playmaker. Jaylen Green, what’s different than Bradley Beal is he’s a lot more downhill. He’s downhill, but he also shoots I mean he shoots a lot of threes, too. He shot 8.1 three-pointers a game last year. And he represents the the downhill point, Sammy. Something that Bradley Beal did not offer this team on a consistent basis, and that’s explosion to the rim. Jaylen Green is upper echelon in terms of explosiveness and athleticism in this league. You know, Jared, to answer your question, yeah, we saw him on the court together a whole bunch, but man, Beiel’s unavailability really put a damper on not only the Suns ultimate team performance, but even trying to gauge in and out of the lineup, in and out, in and out, in and out. Year one, missing the first whatever 25, 30 games. like it never it it just never it never had time to click or gel or to find that chemistry and that cohesion that you wanted when you paired those guys in the back court. It was just so inconsistent from a playing time standpoint because Beal was completely unreliable from an availability standpoint. So, it was really they had moments, Vinnie, you and I talked about it quite a bit over the last couple of years when the Suns wrapped up season number one with the with the big three down the stretch they had 10 really tough games to try to even get out of the playin. I think you’re the one that coined it the gauntlet. The gauntlet. Yeah. But but first of all, they went seven and three. Yeah. And a big reason why Bradley Beal Bradley Beal was at the center of that was by far his best stretch of Suns basketball. Fantastic. So, at some point, I’m just kind of going back to Jared’s question, trying to evaluate, did it work, did it not work. Like, there were stretches where Yeah, it worked. The Suns were a pretty good team, but just his his his unavailability throughout the course of his two years here, he just never got a sense that it had time to to properly bake and cook. I’m just trying to go back to what you just said and trying to conceptualize how this Suns team could be the best version of itself if Devin Booker is playing point guard. Well, you asked the question too about it working and the fact of the matter is when Bradley Beal was brought here to be the third option. We can’t forget the fact that Kevin Durant is no longer here. And that might complicate things on offense. It might free them some things up on offense. You know, Jaylen Green comes in here as unequivocally the number two offensive option for the Phoenix Suns. There’s no doubt about it. And you don’t have the Kevin Durant influence on the offense. Again, we’ll see what that means, whether it’s positive or negative. But I just think asking Jaylen Green to be a two, you’re probably going to get better results than asking Bradley Beiel, who’s been the guy on in his whole NBA career in Washington, to come in and take a third seat, if you will. I understand that that was that was an illconceived, you know, proposition from the from the get-go, as it turned out. I have no doubt Jaylen Green is going to average between 20 and 22 points a game next season. zeroed out. I think I think he’s going to be really good at times. I think people here in Phoenix and even nationally are skewed by a very terrible playoff performance by Jaylen Green. He was really good. He’s a He’s a big reason why they won 52 games. And I know number two seed. I I they were the two seed and I Jaylen Green gets a lot of hate and he the teams analysts knock him, fans knock him, talk show host knock him. I get that. He’s not a perfect player. He’s also only 23. So there’s room to grow and develop and to become the player, the complete player that many hope that he can be. I just I just coaches kind of know how to handle Book in that point guard position. I mean they they they trap him, they double team him, they push him out towards half court like he kind of struggles with that. And especially everything you’ve heard from Jordan Au and Brian Gregory is that they want to play faster. They want to play with more flow, faster pace. Can you do that without a real point guard? It’s certainly more difficult to to Vinnie’s point too. They won’t have Durant out there, you know, trying to play point guard and throwing the ball into the third row six times a game. Well, that’s going to help. I mean, go back to some of the things that we’re seeing in in summer league now. And I’m not saying like a a a big slice of the ball handling duties are going going to go to Oso Gadaro, but flexible guys with the ability. It doesn’t have to be Devin Booker initiating the offense every single time. And pace comes from a mentality, not necessarily from a the way a point guard pushes, if that makes any sense. If your pace is your mentality is always to have pace, just get the ball out and go, create opportunities to run. I I I think we’re going to see a much more increased pace. I hope remember Frank Vogle I mean he was very honest about it late in the year his one year here obviously we’re not a good passing team we’re a bad passing team it was obvious to anybody who watched the team but to hear him say it after like game 79 or 80 we’re like wow finally and that was a but that was also I think a product of not having a point guard and having Booker and Durant consistently initiate the offense and for a time be all those guys great players individually obviously but also doing something that they don’t normally do. You’re asking them to do something that they’re it’s it’s it’s not the best versions of them. Yep. Playing the point. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Bickley & Marotta, with Tim Ring filling in for Bickley, break down how they think Jalen Green will fit next to Devin Booker.

Subscribe to the Arizona Sports daily newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QWcj1x

Read articles from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/

Download the Arizona Sports app: https://arizonasports.com/the-arizona-sports-98-7-fm-app/

Sign up for texts from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/text-alerts/

Listen live to Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/listen-live/

Watch live: arizonasports.com/watch-live

Follow the team: https://bit.ly/3R0PIAJ

ARIZONA SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaSports/

X: https://x.com/azsports

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arizonasports987

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizsports/

ARIZONA SPORTS PODCASTS: https://arizonasports.com/category/podcasts/

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports