Suns’ Jalen Green, Mark Williams injury updates and why can’t Valley athletes stay healthy?

Suns’ Jalen Green, Mark Williams injury updates and why can’t Valley athletes stay healthy?

What you’re not going to love is this injury update for the Phoenix Suns. The season starts a week from today. Some, you know, getting some excitement now for this upcoming season, right? Ready to go. If you if you made a list of of players you’re most excited about, I think Jaylen Green would be pretty high on the lists. Well, here’s Jordan’s uh pregame update yesterday on Jaylen Green and that hamstring issue. Correct. That’s the way it is right now. Well, that’s him in response saying that Jaylen Green is out for the season opener. He talked more about the hamstring. Jaylen, the update there. He did reagravate in China. Um, just the same hamstring. You know, we’re going to continue to assess and within 10 days we can say that we we’ll give you another update. So, great. Within 10 days, I mean, now we’re getting into the season. Um, one more on the Jaylen Green injury from Jordan. We all know the the soft tissue injuries are really hard to see exactly the progress and um obviously he’s frustrated, you know, but this is all part of it. We, you know, thankfully we caught it early. It’s not that serious. Um but he wants to be out there, especially new teammates, new system. There’s just other ways that we’re going to have to speed him up. That’s the reality of it. And you know, he did a great job in the China trip, hanging in there with us. Um and now we just double down on all those things. film, anything that he can do and then he’ll be right back at it, you know, because he is a resilient athlete and he tends to bounce back. This is just another step and he’ll bounce back. Yeah, this really is a bummer. It is. You know, it’s not a good thing. I’m going to put that in the negative category. The guy’s got a hammy and you can tweak that hammy over and over and over again. It’s not a good thing. You got to get it right. And I think this is what the Suns are going to do. They’re going to move in a very cautious way with Jaylen Green in right now. Um the good news is this basinonians, this is a guy who hasn’t missed a game in the last two years, right? Is that good news? So I think that is No, I just think honestly you can look at that for a little context, a little reference here. He’s Muel Bridges basically. So yeah, you bring up a good point. So let me just follow me on this. Okay, here’s how many games Corbin Burns started the last few years before he got to Arizona. Okay, last year 32, the year before 32, the year before 33, the year before 28, the year before 12, but that was 2020 when nobody played a lot. 32, the year before 30. In other words, Corbin Burns doesn’t miss starts. You’re not going to do this, Logan. Until he gets to Arizona and has Tommy John. Uh Jaylen Green last year missed zero games. The year before missed zero games. The year before missed six games. This is not an injury-prone guy and he’s already missing games. What’s your point, Luke? I don’t know what we did in this city. I’m so far past the, “Hey, why can’t the teams in this city win?” I’m more along the lines of, “Hey, why can’t any player we ever bring in stay healthy? What is going on, man?” Okay, it is maddening a little bit to some degree. Uh remember KD when he was uh in warm-up? Remember that? He rolled his ankles. I do actually. That was uh that was now that you bring it up, unbelievable. Let’s face that. just abs admit it was unbelievable. Never seen anything like it. Uh he actually played more than most of these guys or you know I don’t know you draft Walter Nolan and he’s coming out he’s opening his practice window in October. Darius Robinson didn’t get to play his first game till December like what can we just have some players that you know that they don’t have bad luck when they start. But he was you know he was making his debut remember that he was he was coming back and all of a sudden it was like yeah okay that was brutal. So I get your point. I’m not worried about Jaylen Green. I am not. Mark Williams, on the other hand, you know, there’s a lot of room to be concerned, I would say, based on its Yeah, that’s that is a a fair point. I’m more frustrated with the Jaylen Green thing just because of the bigger picture. I’m not worried about it because this is a guy that doesn’t miss games. I mean, you can look at that both ways. The way I just looked at it, it’s maddening. It feels like something’s like there’s some sort of like, I don’t know, push out there that no team from Phoenix can have success in 2025. But the big picture is Jaylen Green is typically healthy. Mark Williams, well, here’s the Jordan injury update there. Mark’s on own pace. You saw him today. Um, now he’s doing live. You know, we said initially was doing everything but live. Now he’s doing live. So, still the same goal. Um, be ready to go for opening night and he’s trending in the right direction. So, that’s good that he’s trending in the right direction. But with Mark Williams, there is a long injury history. So you you knew you were running a risk when you traded two first round picks for him. So as you were watching the game, what were your thoughts in regard to what you were seeing in this preseason finale? Uh my thoughts were is Jared Butler the greatest scorer of all time. That was certainly one of them. Uh my other thoughts were I it’s going to be it’s going to be a major storyline this season to see Kaman Malwatch have a bad game and then bounce back with a good game and just his growing pains but also successes he’s going to have this year and I’m just really happy they traded up and got Rasher Fleming where they did. Those are my takeaways. I know you know what those two guys as well. I think this this preeason has piqued my interest as to whether or not these guys are going to crack the rotation if they can actually crack the rotation. I think Malawatch has got to I I think because of Mark Williams and what is going on there. Now, I know you have some depth at the center position with Oso, of course, and you know, Nick Richards is a guy as well you have to think about, but you know, to me, I think Malawatch is a guy that really has piqued my interest. He had a great game. Had a great game. Shot 80% from the field, 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists, three steals, two blocks. Yeah, it’s pretty good, right? Just turned 19. Unbelievable. Yeah, you know, he had an excellent game in terms of production. Once again, Rashir Fleming is just a freak. He is really, really freaky when you think about it. This guy had a he hit what, three, I think. Yeah, three threes in this game and had five boards as well. But just watching him, he looks like a praying mantis, man. He’s he he kind of has this mantis feel to him when he’s out there on the perimeter in particular. and his raw athleticism is there for all to see. I’m very very interested in seeing how Rashir Fleming pans out. You could see uh you know a path and I don’t know when this is going to take shape but you can at least see them going in this direction where if they’re trying to be better defensively and trying to be a team that is difficult to play against how having guys like Ryan Dunn and Rashier Fleming and Dylan Brooks are going to really and come on now watch too. I mean, he’s he’s going to once he figures this out at the NBA level, it’s going to be really tough to go to the rim against the Phoenix Suns when Kaman Malwatch is on the floor. But you can see some of these guys that you’re like, “Okay, this is why they drafted him. This is and it’s still preseason. I understand that. Although Luca played, um I want to see these these guys now in in real live action, but uh we will in a week. We don’t have to ask any more questions. This was the last time we’re going to see them on the court outside of practice until actual games start next Wednesday.” Yeah. Did you take interest in the guys that did not play as well? Did that raise your eyebrows uh at all? Um I mean I didn’t expect Booker to play. Did you? No, I did not. Couple days after even though Book Even though Book has played an awful lot this preseason, of course I think the China thing is what you’re bringing up and I would agree with that. For me it was Colin Gillespie as well. You know this is the fact he did not play sat him down a little bit. That means to me they’re looking at him as an option and think he’s going to get minutes in the rotation. That’s what I think. That’s what it looks like. I mean, if you want to go through the list of guys who didn’t play, you’re looking at Devin Booker, Royce O’Neal, Ryan Dunn, Dylan Brooks, Nick Richards, Oso, Grayson Allen, um, and then Colin Gillespie and a couple guys who aren’t going to play, but I mean, those are guys who played last year either here or somewhere else that didn’t play last night. So yeah, I mean, if you’re trying to project forward into that first game or the first couple games, those guys who didn’t play last night probably going to play a lot in the opener. And there’s one thing that is clear based on what you’ve watched so far in preseason, and it has had um different levels of success, granted, I’ll give you that. Yet, at the same time, when you look at the effort on the defensive side of the floor, it’s not even close. It really isn’t. This is this is going to be part of the culture of this team. the the effort on the defensive end of the floor. You’re either going to play defense or you’re not going to play for the Phoenix Suns. I honestly think it’s going to come down to that. As we see this team unfold, as we see this this team develop through this season right now, I I I literally believe that if you can’t play defense, I don’t think you’re going to be here. That’s certainly the way Matt Ishbia framed it up at the end of last season. And you can understand why. I mean, if if you don’t if you’re operating without the lofty expectations of, well, you got a big three, you better be in the NBA finals, you can make more definitive declarations on how you’re going to play. Uh, you can you can make a statement like that, even if you’re just making it with your decisions of if you’re not going to play defense, you’re not going to be here. Well, who’s going to look and be like, well, you didn’t play this guy, now you’re not going to win the title. You’re not going to win the title this year anyway. So, you may as well lay that foundation of if you’re not going to play defense, you’re not going to be here. And there’s going to be guys that are going to have different and varying degrees of success when it comes to the defensive end of the floor. Devin Booker, once again, I think he is a guy that can be a two-way guy. I think he is that guy. I think Deon Booker is a two-way guy. I think the problem is sometimes they’re asking him to be like a four-way guy. Like they’re inventing new things for And once again, I’m not saying he’s a locked down defender. I am not saying that. But he will try on the defensive end of the floor. When you score the ball the way he does, that will make you a two-way guy. Thanks for watching Wolf and Luke. Tap to see more and click the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green is expected to miss the season opener due to a hamstring injury while center Mark Williams has progressed to going through 5-on-5 workouts. Wolf & Luke take a look at various Valley athletes known for having little injury issues and contemplate why they can’t seem to stay healthy once playing for Arizona teams.

Maluach, Fleming show potential in Suns’ preseason finale: https://arizonasports.com/nba/phoenix-suns/suns-rookies-win/3599124/

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