The Suns may need to rethink Jalen Green’s role before it costs them

The evaluation period for Jalen Green continues, and the early returns are not what you hoped for. Patience is part of this, especially when a player is operating outside of the role he was brought to the Valley to do. But through this stretch, as the fifth-year guard rebounds from injury, it has not felt promising.

He has elite athleticism, the kind that jumps off the screen. He has the potential to be a game breaker, someone who adds a much-needed layer to a Suns’ offense that is 29th in the NBA in shots at the rim.

But since arriving in Phoenix, it has been a strange season for Green. A player who has always been available found himself dealing with health issues. Watching from the sidelines, not contributing on the court. He was a vocal cheerleader, sure, and that adds to the team camaraderie. But it is an area foreign to a player who played in 307 of a possible 328 games to start his career.

Now he is back, trying to fold himself into what this team has been building all year, and it looks like he has run into cerebral quicksand. You can see it. There are possessions where he feels the need to force the action. There are shots early in the clock that do not need to be taken. There are drives into traffic where the read was asking for a kick out. It feels like a player trying to prove something in real time. It feels like a player carrying more than he should.

That is the reality right now. You want him to succeed. You want the talent to translate. Instead, it feels heavy, like every possession is an audition. For a young electric guard, that can drain you quickly.

There is still time. Devin Booker could return next week, and his presence changes the geometry of everything. When the offense flows through Booker, when the gravitational pull bends the defense toward him, roles settle. Decisions become cleaner. The reads arrive a half-second sooner.

Through this stretch, running the offense through Jalen Green has not produced the desired result. The efficiency has dipped. The rhythm has wavered. With Booker back, Green can slide into a space that fits him better, attack tilted floors, operate against scrambling defenses, and rediscover the ease that has been missing.

There still are some concerns, are there not? Yes, he is playing in a role that does not suit him. The defenses can tilt their attack towards him with a greater frequency than when Booker returns. It’s the inefficiencies that worry me. And for those who are screaming from the back of the room, “He’s seeing more complex defenses! He’s the point-of-attack, so of course it’s going to effect his overall percentages! You don’t know ball!”, I point this out. Since returning on February 7, Jalen Green is shooting 21.7% on field goal attempts that are deemed “wide open”, with no defender within six feet of him. And he’s 2-of-17 from deep on those attempts. That’s 11.8%.

You go back to the Lakers game, and the pattern was hard to ignore. When Jalen Green was on the floor, the ball stuck. The initiation slowed. Possessions stretched deep into the clock with him dribbling, probing, searching for a crack that never fully opened. Too often it ended in an empty trip.

Then he sat. Grayson Allen checked in. The air changed.

The ball popped from side to side. The weak side lifted. The extra pass found open shooters. The Suns went on runs that felt connected, deliberate, and sustainable. Jordan Ott saw it too. The adjustment came. Green logged eight minutes in the second half.

“There’s a conditioning piece to this,” Ott recently said of green. “I think we all have to have a little grace with Jalen. He’s out there. He plays really hard. He’s trying to get the conditioning piece in-season against a really good defense.”

He finished with 9 points in 23 minutes, 4-of-15 from the field, 1-of-7 from deep. Another inefficient night. The box score tells part of the story. The eye test fills in the rest.

You dig into the numbers, and you can layer in context. Role change. Health. Timing. Chemistry. All of it matters. The metrics still sit there.

He is averaging 8.4 drives per game across 12 games played, shooting 36% on those drives. For a guard whose superpower is getting downhill, that is a tough number to swallow. Since his return on February 7, the team owns a 91.3 offensive rating with him on the court. That is second-worst on the roster, ahead of only Mark Williams at 89.4. In 172.1 minutes during February, the team carries a -18.4 net rating with Green out there.

Individually, he is at 33.1% from the field in that stretch, taking more shots than anyone else on the team. He is 20.8% from three. He sits at a -60.

Some of that can be circumstance. Some of it can be role. Some of it can be timing. What it looks like right now is a player pressing, trying to bend the game to his will, when the game is asking him to blend into it.

One harsh reality sits in the middle of all of this. This team was functioning while he was on the bench rehabbing his hamstring. The ball moved. The roles were defined. The offense had an identity. Since his reinsertion, knowing that injuries have complicated the picture, Jalen Green has not shifted the needle in a positive direction. The inefficiency has drained possessions. It looks like a player trying to make up for lost time, trying to fast-forward chemistry that only comes with reps.

That brings the real question back into focus, the one we were already debating when it felt like his second hamstring strain might be a short detour.

Who starts when Devin Booker returns?

At one point, it felt like an open discussion. Right now, it feels clearer. Collin Gillespie next to Booker, with Green coming off the bench. Gillespie has shown he can organize, keep the ball humming, and knock down the open three. Booker bends the floor. Gillespie keeps it spaced. Green then slides into a role that may actually serve him better.

Picture him as an off-ball guard with the second unit, attacking second-team defenses in bursts, putting pressure on the rim in shorter windows instead of carrying 16.9 shots a night. Let him hunt advantages rather than manufacture them. Let him play fast without having to orchestrate every action.

It is an extremely narrow sample size, with more variables than a polynomial equation, so you have to tread lightly. That said, there is at least something worth noting when you break down the splits. In 7 games as a starter, Jalen Green is shooting 36% from the field, 27% from three, and 54% from the line. That is not a sustainable offense for someone handling that level of usage, which is 34.8% as a starter.

In 5 games coming off the bench, the numbers tick up slightly. He is at 37% from the field, 30% from deep, and 100% from the line. His usage rate is 26.8%. The jump is not dramatic, and the volume matters, but the efficiency is marginally better in a reserve role.

Again, we are talking about 12 total games. Context matters. Opponent quality matters. Lineup pairings matter. Conditioning matters. Still, if the early data suggests he is a touch more comfortable attacking second units and playing in shorter bursts, that is something the coaching staff has to weigh. It does not close the case. It does not prove the theory. It adds another data point to a conversation that is already layered.

Inefficiency has followed him throughout his career. The hope was that a new environment would smooth some of that out. Early returns suggest it has traveled with him. That does not mean the book is written. It means the work remains. Some people will say it is too early to draw firm conclusions, that he deserves more runway post-injury before any rotational decisions are locked in. They are not wrong. Basketball gives you time to test theories.

The schedule ahead softens. Sacramento. Chicago. New Orleans. In theory, there is space there to experiment, to refine, to see what this version of Jalen Green can become within this ecosystem. The answers do not have to come tonight. But they do have to start showing up soon.

At some point, you have to acknowledge what is in front of you. I do not expect his percentages to remain this low. History says there will be some correction. The question is how much. If his career averages are the baseline, how far does the needle actually move from there? How much growth are you truly projecting versus hoping for?

Right now, Green feels like the new kid who transferred in the middle of the school year. New hallways. New rhythms. Trying to read the room while also trying to prove he belongs in it. That takes time. It also takes comfort. Until that comfort shows up on the floor, the Suns have to be intentional about how they handle his minutes.

There is a difference between giving someone minutes and having them earn minutes. This season has been built on competition. Nobody has been handed anything. Roles have shifted based on impact. If the lineup clicks, it stays. If it stalls, it changes. That standard cannot bend because of a contract number. Yes, he makes $33.6 million. That does not guarantee a starting spot. It does not guarantee 30 minutes. It guarantees opportunity. What you do with it determines everything else.

If the game is flowing better with him in a different role, that is where he should be, at least for the remainder of the season. A healthy off-season with this group, a training camp built around defined roles, and a reset heading into next year could be the cleanest medicine. There are people who will say it is too early to draw firm conclusions, that he deserves more runway post injury before any rotational decisions are locked in. They are not wrong. Basketball gives you time to test theories. If cohesion and chemistry improve when he is staggered with the second unit, that is where the minutes should land until the impact matches the talent. That is not punishment. That is pragmatism.

The hope is that it clicks for him. The hope is that comfort arrives, the efficiency stabilizes, and the athleticism translates into consistent production. Early returns say it has not happened yet. Ignoring that would not serve him. It would not serve the team either.

At the end of the day, you have to view this through a logistical lens. This is not a video game where development sliders and standings can both be maxed out at the same time. There are real stakes attached to every lineup decision.

This team is trying to climb into the playoff picture and stay clear of the Play-In. Every possession matters. Every rotation tweak carries weight. If keeping Jalen Green in the starting lineup is producing 4-of-15 nights, 1-of-7 from deep, and offensive stretches that stall out, that can cost you games. In a crowded Western Conference, that can cost you positioning.

At the same time, you cannot ignore the long view. You invested in him. You need to understand how he fits. You need enough runway to evaluate him honestly, not in theory, not in small bursts, but in meaningful minutes against real competition. You cannot make a long-term decision based on noise.

That is the tension. Push for wins now, or stretch the evaluation window and live with some growing pains. There is no clean answer. There is only the balance between urgency and patience, between chasing the standings and building something sustainable. That is the puzzle in front of the Suns right now.