Jalen Green doesn’t think taking on more of a playmaker role will change his game.
To him, it will enhance it.
“Same me, just getting guys involved a little more,” Green said. “Making the right reads. If I'm making the right read, it's going to help my offensive game, too. It would be an even thing, but I've always been a good playmaker. I can make the right read sometimes. Sometimes, bad results, but I'm trying to find the right read in general. Step in the right direction. It's not that I can't pass the ball. It's just, let's make the better, the right reads.”
Green is entering his second season with the Phoenix Suns looking to expand his game by simply being himself and making the correct decision based on how they’re being defended.
“He's going
to have the ball more,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said. “We saw it as the season progressed, he’s got more comfortable in our system, his system, but just make the right read. It's not shoot, pass, do, just make the right read.”
Green, 24, has averaged just 3.3 assists in his five NBA seasons. He managed just 2.8 a game last season, but Green only played 32 games due to a recurring left hamstring injury.
He remained in Phoenix for most of the offseason to return to full strength and work on improving his overall game with playmaking being one aspect of it.
“It's completely voluntary and he chose to live here and stay here and work out in this facility,” Ott said. “He could still live here, stay here and work out somewhere else. We proved to him the building was a helpful place for him, but he has to make the commitment. He did. And we felt it (Tuesday). You'll see it when he plays. I think just think the understanding of reps that he was able to take on the floor was a big piece this summer, but the off-court work, what he's able to do in the weight room, just a consistent weight-room approach, will definitely help him.”
Green spent time this summer with two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash to work on improving his playmaker skills.
One of league’s greatest point guards ever, Nash led the league in assists five times. He's sixth all-time in career assists with 10,335.
Nash, who starred for the Suns during the early 2000s, took on a senior adviser role with the team last season.
“The pacing, just being able to read the game a little bit better,” Green said. “Hearing from somebody of that caliber, being able to sit down and actually watch a workout and critique you as you go, that sticks with you. Just being able to hear him, how he breaks the game down, how he sees it, helps a lot.”
Green isn’t being asked to play like Nash.
The Suns are just looking for him to stay aggressive and read the play that should lead to either a good shot or pass.
“Make the right play, continuously put yourself in a threat position, which, again, we're going to continue to stress the paint,” Ott said. “He can get there. And then when the defender comes, make the right play, when the defender doesn't come, go ahead and be aggressive. So just the evolution of his time in the NBA.”
This shift could help relieve Devin Booker from shouldering too much of the playmaker duties so he can look to score even more.
Booker paced the Suns in points per game at 26.1 and assists at six a game last season, but he has seen a decline in his shot attempts since the 2021-22 season, when he hoisted a career-high 20.9 shots a game in averaging 26.8 points a game.
- 2022-23 season – 20.1 FGAs (career-high 27.8 PPG).
- 2023-24 season – 19.2 FGAs (27.1 PPG).
- 2024-25 season – 18.9 FGAs (25.6 PPG).
- 2025-26 season – 18.7 FGAs (26.1 PPG).
“The game is position-less now,” Booker said. “I even talked about what the addition of Miles (Bridges), another person that can make plays. I think everybody on the court needs to be able to have those abilities. Frees up everybody. Makes it a free-flow offense. You learn with experience. You learn by being thrown in the fire, being trusted with those responsibilities and we’ve been seeing it in camp already with them.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns' Jalen Green aims to improve playmaking, worked with Steve Nash
