Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green talks high school jersey retirement
Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green described his emotions after his high school jersey retirement and offered an injury update.
Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green is “100 percent” in terms of strength with his right hamstring, but he isn’t quite ready to return to action.
“Some of that, you can measure,” said Suns coach Jordan Ott during Sunday’s pregame availability before facing defending NBA champion Oklahoma City on Jan. 4 at Mortgage Matchup Center.
“Is he 100% strength? He’s there. So now, this is the ramp-up time period onto the court is where he’s at. That’s currently where he’s at. So he’s fully healthy, strong. His sprint speed is good and now we’re going to give him a couple of weeks to play.”
Green has played just two games this season after playing every game the two previous seasons with the Houston Rockets.
The Suns acquired Green in the Kevin Durant trade. Green initially injured his hamstring during training camp and has re-injured it twice since then with the latest coming in the first quarter of a road game Nov. 8 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Ott stressed the importance of being cautious with Green, who will miss his 25th straight game Sunday against the Thunder. The explosive guard is in the second week of his 2-to-3-week evaluation period after going through a 4-to-6-week evaluation period.
“Totally,” Ott said. “There are measures to reach. There are numbers we can see based on strength and sprint speed. Is he there yet? Is he fully healthy? Knowing that when you get out in a competitive environment, you see a gap, you try to drive the gap. That’s a unique environment that he’s going to be put in. You’re going to go and with this soft tissue injuries, want to be as careful as we can.”
Green has traveled with the team on the road to continue his rehab.
“So we’re going to have multiple days where we’re going to try to stretch it in our practice gym,” Ott continued. “He’s a valuable piece to us. Has a whole long career ahead of him. Again, every step of the way, there’s been measures to try to be reached and he’s done it. We absolutely want him out there healthy.”
Green scored 29 points in his Suns debut Nov. 6 against the Clippers, hitting six 3s to set a franchise record for most made 3s in a Suns debut.
Ott also provided an injury update on Grayson Allen, who will miss his ninth straight game Jan. 4 with a right knee injury. Allen played a second 5-on-5 before practice Jan. 3, responded well to it, and is on track to play Jan. 5 at Houston in the second of a back-to-back.
“Great,” Ott said “That’s what we were looking for. He wasn’t going to play the back-to-back anyways. His play yesterday on the 5-on-5, everything seems to be good to go. Tomorrow, hopefully, we’ll see him back out there.”
Ott also is expecting Mark Williams to play in the second of a back-to-back for only the second time this season Jan. 5 at Houston.
“It’s the same with Mark,” Ott said. “How does he get out of today. How he comes out it. The plan is to play, but we’ll know exactly how he comes out. We’ll be ready to go if that’s what we decide to do. We’re going to continue to be smart with him.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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