Suns Speak on Devin Booker-Jalen Green Backcourt Dynamic

How will Devin Booker and Jalen Green co-exist in the backcourt together and how will the Phoenix Suns fit around them?

This is arguably the most pressing question in terms of success for the Suns heading into the 2025-26 season, especially after a failed backcourt experiment of Booker and Bradley Beal.

Both Booker and Green are natural shooting guards, and Green has yet to prove himself as a playmaker in the NBA, while Booker has taken major strides forward in this area, averaging a career-high 7.1 assists last season, but is one of the premier 2 guards in the league when he plays the position.

Booker was asked at Suns media day Wednesday if he enjoys dictating possessions as the lead ball handler and how the chemistry will be with Green.

"I do. I enjoy it," Booker said. "I think it starts with both of us with the ability to score, and once you become a threat in that regard, it's going to open up easier opportunities for everybody else. I think overall, playing with a faster pace and getting up the court, we call it kicking heads or skips. It doesn't really matter."

It will be up to first-year Suns coach Jordan Ott to determine how Booker and Green will fit together in the backcourt and who will be the ball-dominant guard.

Ott said that there is such a variety of point guards in today's NBA, which has been a big change in the last five to 10 years and shared his perspective how he plans to construct a system around Booker and Green.

"Part of the offense is we want to play fast. In order to play fast, you need to have multiple ball handlers," Ott said. "The other part of the offense is we're going to play fast and play in concepts, so we have to have solutions on whatever coverage is being played against us. Some nights on how they're going to play Jalen and Book, it may entail someone else creating that first domino, that first advantage.

"The game has shifted. I think we're extremely lucky to have some depth in that guard position. I'm interested to see how it does play out in the preseason, but it's also our job as coaches to fit the play style and what we do offensively around the guys that we have, and for that, we're lucky. We're very lucky that we do have multiple ball handlers. It's going to put some of those guys in a position that they haven't been in, and that part is exciting, and we're all going to try to find solutions that best fits us to win that night."

Green has no worries about the positional overlap with him and Booker.

"I'm excited to play Book. I think it's gonna be a good situation," Green said. "I think I'm gonna be able to learn a lot from him while at the same time adding what I can bring to the table. I think we're gonna complement each other a lot, especially with the system that Ott's got us playing in.

"I think we gonna be playing fast, and I think we gonna be creating a lot for each other and create for others. So I'm very excited about it, and I think we gonna shock a lot of people too."