Of all the offseason acquisitions the Phoenix Suns made this summer, Jalen Green is by far the most exciting arrival to The Valley. The 23-year-old the main player the franchise got in the Kevin Durant trade with the Houston Rockets, fresh off hanging 38 on the Golden State Warriors in a playoff game.
The Suns may not be finished with the Warriors yet this offseason, while they also have a glaringproblem at the point guard position. Both Green and Devin Booker are going to start in the backcourt, and neither of them is a natural playmaker. Booker has played the facilitator at times in the last few seasons for the good of the team, but those days are now gone.
Green's lack of vision is going to hurt Suns massively claims ESPN.
So while many expect the organization to once again revolve around the 28-year-old Booker - meaning he would revert to his killer scoring ways - that would leave Green to become a point guard for the first time in his career. A terrible idea according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, who claims that Green has "no vision".
If you watch the above video, it looks like MacMahon makes that proclamation to get a laugh out of Brian Windhorst more than anything else, but that doesn't change the fact he said it. Moments before that, Tim Bontemps also revealed that he did not like the fit between Booker and Green in The Valley, for obvious reasons.
But is that a fair criticism of the former second overall pick by the Rockets? The 3.4 assists he managed last season is right on his career average, while the roster he was a part of in Houston didn't exactly need his passing skills each night. They boast one of the best young centers in the league in Alperen Sengun, who is more than capable of doing a Nikola Jokic impression offensively.
Fred VanVleet is also a floor general in the truest sense of the word, and so Green didn't need to set up his teammates when he had the former Toronto Raptor next to him. There weren't many lineups that featured Green at the one while VanVleet was on the bench per Cleaning The Glass, but the ones that did have some surprisingly positive numbers.
Take the group of Green, fellow Suns recruit Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr., Sengun and Steven Adams, which in 18 possessions had a rating of +72.2 or an offensive rating of 144.4. Video games from a tiny sample size - and one which features Sengun in the lineup to do some playmaking as well - but not necessarily a bad sign.
Green is going to play with Brooks in Phoenix, while Booker is miles ahead of any of the aforementioned Rockets players offensively. Not helping his case are the 2.4 turnovers a night he has managed throughout his career, a number that simply has to come down if Green ever hopes to run the show.
Given the Suns are going nowhere fast - and likely trying to increase Green's trade value in the process - having him run the point isn't actually a bad idea. To say a second overall pick has no vision is ridiculous, the much fairer criticism of Green's game is that he takes too much out of the ball and tries to do everything himself offensively. If the Suns can change that mentality, he can succeed.