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With Devin Booker returning tonight, expect a different starting lineup than the one the Phoenix Suns have been deploying the past few games amid all their injuries. Collin Gillespie will be running the point guard position as he has been the past three-plus months, Booker will be next to him in the backcourt, Mark Williams will be at center, and Royce O’Neale will be the team’s power forward.
The question is who will be playing the small forward position.
Grayson Allen has solidified his position as the team’s bench scorer, something he continued to do amid the team’s injuries, so it will come down to Ryan Dunn or Jalen Green.
Both have started the last few games, with Dunn having his first set of back-to-back double-digit scoring games since November, and Green has continued to struggle since coming back from his hamstring injury. The 24-year-old is averaging a career low 13 points per game on career low efficiency from the field, three, and free throw line. He’s especially struggled in his last four games, shooting 28% from the field and 15% from three.
While he did hit a buzzer-beating three against the Orlando Magic, it’s been a struggle lately for the fifth-year guard.
One of the key pieces the Suns acquired when they dealt Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets back in the offseason, Green has one of the highest upsides out of any player on the Phoenix roster. Coming into the season, Green was the only player outside of Devin Booker on the Suns to average at least 20 points per game for an entire season, and he did it twice in his first four seasons, including last year, where he was the leading scorer on a Houston Rockets team that was the second seed in the Western Conference.
He had a 38-point playoff game in his second-career playoff game. Amid all his defensive struggles, inefficiency problems, and size, he has the potential to have a big offensive game like few can on the Phoenix Suns. With the team lacking draft capital for the foreseeable future and carrying few young players on the roster, Green’s progression remains a vital part of the Suns’ future. While Dunn is also one of the team’s few young players, Dunn does not have the offensive potential that Green does, and has been given ample opportunities throughout his two seasons to prove himself and not done so consistently. Green has not been given that opportunity yet with the Suns.
Green has only played 12 games this season. When he returned from his hamstring injury, he re-injured it. Then, when he returned, he quickly had a few more absences due to injury. It’s fair to wonder how his conditioning has impacted his play, given how inconsistently he’s been in the lineup, as Jordan Ott spoke about recently. The question is, should he be playing more with the starters or the reserves? You decide.