Beware of Jalen Green Time. 

There is a moment in many Phoenix Suns games, and many Houston Rockets games before them, when Jalen Green decides that it’s Jalen Green time and begins pressing his own offense no matter how inadvisable. It is a serious problem for the Suns, as it was for the Rockets before them. But can Phoenix live without Jalen Green Time? 

Jalen Green running the offense has not been a winning recipe

In Game 2 of the Suns’ first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Jalen Green Time took effect in the second quarter for two minutes, in which Green stopped the Thunder from running away early by scoring six quick points — he hit a 3-pointer, drew a foul on a drive and converted a nice transition layup. Another Jalen Green Time dropped at the end of the third quarter, with mixed results.

The final Jalen Green Time, though, was a disaster. Green did not score for the final 11 minutes of the game, yet committed four back-knee-and-shoulder breaking turnovers. This resulted in a truly terrible box score for Green, in which he logged 41 minutes, shot under 35 percent from the field (including 1-of-8 from 3) with seven turnovers to three assists. It is no longer Jalen Green Time.

The Suns, however, fared pretty well during Green’s fourth quarter disintegration. They went on a 20-8 run during the first eight minutes of Green’s scoreless last 11, and actually clawed a close-ish game from the jaws of a blowout. Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks were significantly more assertive, and we even had some Royce O’Neale rhythm threes. It seems, then, that the Suns’ success may come at the expense of Jalen Green Time. 

The Suns need some Jalen Green Time to survive against the Thunder

But they can just cancel Jalen Green Time like it’s a sitcom, though. Green had an evidently detrimental box score — he logged a putrid box plus-minusof minus-9.2. That’s bad, but I am not super sure the Suns could have survived this game without at least a little Jalen Green Time. 

It’s easy to say that Green’s 8-for-23 shooting is … uh, bad, but harder to actually replace those shots over the course of a game. Dillon Brooks had four fouls in the third quarter, and Devin Booker was seeing the teeth of the Thunder defense all night. Unless Collin Gillespie wants to start taking guys off the dribble (which may have worked against a team not made up of defensive super battle droids, but the Thunder are), Green is going to need to create offense for Phoenix. I’d love it if he could be more efficient (everyone would … heck, he would) but Green can’t just be consigned to oblivion if the Suns are going to win this thing. 

They aren’t going to win this thing, but if they were, Jalen Green will be a part of it. Weirdly, the first stretch of Jalen Green Time arguably kept the Suns in the game in the first half. He was playing with real pace and was assertive in the face of a Thunder defense that made even Booker look passive and shell-shocked. Green’s often-problematic confidence is an asset for a team that is totally overmatched, even if said confidence is the thing causing the overmatched-ness. That is The Fundamental Contradiction of Jalen Green, also the title of my forthcoming philosophy dissertation.

He is a super-talented offensive player, but uses that talent as an excuse not to play within a larger system. He hunts his own shots because that has worked for him his entire life and career, and it unfortunately has to work for the Suns if they want to steal even a game of this series. It isn’t a long-term strategy, but Phoenix is in such a bind that they aren’t thinking past Sunday. I’m sure Head Coach Jordan Ott would love someone else to take 23 shots, but he has Green. The Suns will have to live with Jalen Green Time for now.

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