Every trade has its price.
The Houston Rockets decided a year-and-a-half ago that the cost to acquire Kevin Durant was worth giving up Jalen Green and a number of other assets to the Phoenix Suns.
As time has passed, there’s been no reason for the Rockets to regret that deal.
Green has not blossomed into the star the Suns needed him to turn into. In fact, he’s off to a brutal beginning to the 2026-27 NBA season.
Meanwhile, Durant remains one of the league’s top scorers, even at his advanced age.
Maybe the Suns wouldn’t have been good enough at the moment to benefit from still having Durant — but the Rockets sure aren’t missing Green.
Jalen Green Stats
Green, the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, is on a bumpy track to begin this season.
It’s early, but it’s not good — Green is averaging 11.0 points and 2.5 assists per game so far while shooting 43.9% from the floor and 28.6% from 3-point range.
Green has never been particularly efficient, but the hope has always been that with aging and wisdom would come a bit better and more productive shot selection.
It’s not looking that way early in this season for Green.
If he can’t become a more effective player for the Suns, it’s going to be tough for them to reach any particularly impressive heights.
Jalen Green Trade
The Green trade ended up being structured as a massive seven-team deal, but it’s pretty simple to track down who went where.
The Rockets got Durant from the Suns. That was Phoenix’s big outlay.
In return, the Suns got Green, Dillon Brooks and a bunch of draft picks. Three of those draft picks have already turned into players — Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Koby Brea.
Brooks has grown into his own even more with the Suns, which is the one saving grace of the deal.
Maluach is a young center with potential, and if he happened to continue to blossom, Phoenix could feel better about this trade, too.
But they got Green as a young guard still growing into his prime. He was supposed to be one of the anchors of this trade.
Instead, he looks like a problematic, inefficient guard who can’t achieve what he wants to on the floor often enough.
Given Green’s age, there will remain believers in his ability to eventually reach his ceiling, whether with the Suns or otherwise.
But a player of his natural talent probably shouldn’t start a season as poorly as Green has begun this one, and that raises plenty of questions about whether his ceiling is even close to as high as most once thought it was.
Rockets Not Missing Jalen Green After Suns Trade Backfires