Just for a moment, imagine you’re playing NBA 2K and are able to give prime Steve Nash the athletic attributes of Jalen Green. It’s a great dream sequence, one that only Robert Horry would find a way to ruin.
What about the inverse? That’s not going to happen. But what about “just a little”?
Today at Suns Media Day, Jalen mentioned a focus on his pace of play and creating for others. The attention-getter: he had regular mentoring over the offseason on this from none other than Suns Ring of Honor member
and NBA Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash.
What did he learn from MVP Steve?
“The pace and just being able to read the game a little bit better. Haring somebody his caliber, [a] two-time MVP, Hall of Famer, being able to sit down and actually watch a workout and critique you…that sticks with you,” Green said during Media Day availability. “Being able to hear him, how he breaks the game down, how he sees it, helps a lot.”
My main (and encouraging) takeaway is that he’s making an intentional focus of this. That is the first and often key step of any self-improvement. In the player preview article by John Voita, he connected last year’s preseason focus on mid-range shooting, which resulted in a full-season grade improvement from D- the year prior to A- per BBall Index. With a similar focus on playmaking, improvement is possible.
Thinking about this, the skeptic in me wondered if other score-first players have made a mid-career improvement in playmaking. Several relevant examples exist. DeMar DeRozan exemplifies how this transition can be effective. His first four seasons are all at or under 4.0 assists per game. Then, Raptors coach Dwane Casey put a focus on playmaking with DeMar in 2017-18, and his assists jumped to 5.2. This started a string of 10 straight seasons over four a game, peaking at 6.9 apg in the 2020-21 season. DeMar also likes to play downhill and became very effective at drawing fouls (along with an elite mid-range game). He is not a point guard, and I don’t think that label should be applied literally to Jalen either. In a similar way as DeRozan, he can be a big-time scorer, drawing attention to then make plays for others.
Let’s be realistic this season. Real playmaking is a rarer skill than dunking or three-point shooting. Some seem to be born with it, others develop it. Even in the example above, there was a transition season with slight improvement. If we see Jalen have a decrease in turnovers, his assists bump up more than +1 per game, and our eyes watching the games see a player in control of that Ferrari engine, then there is some validity to this dream for the longer term. Not an easy task, but great to know he has “MV Steve” in his corner for the journey.
As several post commenters have noted this past week, so much to watch for this season!
