NBA Notes: Suns, Jalen Green, Knicks, Kelly Olynyk, Cavs

Suns

Jalen Green gets another crack at making this whole Suns thing work. Perhaps the bigger question is whether the Suns can make it work around him.

That’s basically the issue raised by Brendan Mau of NBA on SI, who examined Green’s fit entering his second season in Phoenix.

Green played just 32 games last season because of hamstring issues, averaging 17.8 points while shooting 42.2 percent from the field and 31.3 percent on threes. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin recently identified Green’s fit as Phoenix’s biggest question entering the season.

Sounds fair. The Suns have Devin Booker, Miles Bridges and Dillon Brooks, all of whom need shots. Green does, too. That’s a lot of mouths to feed with one basketball.

As Mau noted, though, Green could become particularly useful when some of the starters head to the bench. Let him attack, run, score and basically be Jalen Green.

At 24, it’s way too early to write him off. But after arriving as a major piece of the Kevin Durant trade, this feels like a fairly important season for Green to show Phoenix exactly what it has.

Knicks

Kelly Olynyk is still looking for work, and Isaiah De Los Santos of Knicks on SI wonders if New York could eventually become the landing spot.

Not necessarily with a guaranteed contract, either.

The Warriors had been connected to Olynyk before filling their final standard roster spots with Brandon Williams and Georges Niang. That takes away one potential destination for the 35-year-old center and perhaps makes him more receptive to a training-camp audition.

The Knicks could use another big man. Olynyk has been around forever, can still stretch the floor and has 57 games of playoff experience.

Is he the answer to anything particularly important? Probably not. But we’re talking about a potential third center here. You could certainly do worse.

De Los Santos suggested a camp competition could make sense, allowing the defending champions to take a look without making much of a commitment.

At this stage of August, that’s probably about where Olynyk’s market stands.

Cavaliers

Remember when the Cavaliers traded out of the first round and some people wondered what they were doing?

Well, apparently they were hoping Meleek Thomas would still be sitting there at No. 34.

Josh Poloha of Cavs on SI highlighted a behind-the-scenes video released by the team that showed Cleveland was seriously considering Thomas with the 29th pick before Sacramento offered No. 34 and a future second-rounder.

“We might get him at 34, now that we have a day to work on it,” Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman said after the trade.

Turns out, he was right. Altman described Thomas as one of college basketball’s best shot-makers, and the rookie did nothing in Summer League to change that opinion. Thomas averaged 27.3 points while shooting 50 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from three.

Now comes the harder part. Cleveland already has James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Sam Merrill, Craig Porter Jr. and Tyrese Proctor among its guards. So Thomas may have to wait.

Still, if you’re going to stash a 19-year-old behind a bunch of established NBA guards, having one who can flat-out score isn’t the worst idea.

The Cavs thought Thomas was a first-round talent. They traded down, picked up another asset and got him anyway. Sometimes the plan actually works.