PHNX Daily: Jalen Green is Back

👋 GOOD MORNING – Happy Thursday, everyone. We’re almost to the end of another week.

The past calendar year has been one of the toughest stretches of injury luck imaginable for some of our beloved teams, but on Tuesday night, the Suns got a big piece back in Jalen Green, as their expectation-smashing season continued with another quality win.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals have brought in a name I don’t think anyone had on their radar in this head coaching cycle.

Let’s talk!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

Jalen Green Makes Return for Suns

The Suns had been without Jalen Green — one of the centerpieces of the Kevin Durant trade — since November 6, after the former No. 2-overall pick went down with back-to-back hamstring injuries. He had only played in two games with Phoenix.

But on Tuesday night, Green finally made his long-awaited return. The timeline felt brutal, sometimes agonizingly long, though the Suns were still playing exciting, competent basketball without him.

Green was limited in his action, and only saw 20 minutes on the court (off the bench), but still managed to contribute 12 points, two rebounds and three assists on 4-for-11 shooting in a game Phoenix won 116-110 over the 76ers (in Philadelphia, and on the second night of a back-to-back).

“Felt good. The process was a long process,” Green said to AZCentral’s Duane Rankin. “Shoutout to the training staff, my teammates, the whole organization for real, just sticking with me, supporting me. The process been long. It felt good to get back out there, and just feel food. I felt like myself again.

“I felt solid. Minute restriction. It’s hard to get a rhythm a little bit, but just trying to work my way back. Hopefully I get back all the way where there’s no minute restriction and I’m just flowing. I felt good though, overall.”

Was it a mind-blowing performance from Green? No, but it was a solid start, and part of a well-rounded effort from the rest of the Suns’ bench — who scored 60 of Phoenix’s 116 points. Four of the Suns’ five bench contributors scored 10-plus in the effort.

Green only further adds to the depth and scoring potential of this squad. Sure, he may take some time to get back to full speed, but he already looked like a player the Suns can count on in his limited action. The scoring, athleticism and (perhaps most importantly) vibes do not appear to be at all hindered.

The nice part of this, however, is that Phoenix is already outperforming. The Suns haven’t been overly reliant on anyone. They’ve been, dare I say… aligned (ding!). That’s been the positive, blue-collar identity of this team so far: guys doing their job and playing their role well.

Don’t look now, but the Suns are 27-17, 10 games over .500 and still haven’t seemed to actually hit their full ceiling yet. Most outlets expected a losing season, and some even expected dismal losing seasons. I can think of one projection that had Phoenix winning just 26 games this year, which is now an officially laughable prediction.

There may be hardships still to come, but the Suns are happy, healthy (for now), and leaning into their strengths, rather than trying to force round square pegs into round holes — which is what the last couple of years have felt like.

Quick Hits

Who?: Yesterday, the Cardinals set up a second interview with Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. No, you didn’t miss the first interview — it just happened without anyone’s knowledge.

Campanile has a solid resume as DC, and seems to be a young coach on the rise, but he’s a very unknown name in this cycle. My gut tells me Campanile ends up being the guy, to be honest, which may not be a bad thing, at all. He’s clearly got some fire in him. But it certainly wasn’t who we all had in mind.

By the way, if you’d like to get daily updates on every twist and turn in the Cardinals’ coaching search, check out PHNX Cardinals’ coaching tracker, updated daily by yours truly:

Arizona Cardinals 2026 Coaching Search Tracker

Bear(cats) Down: The No. 1 Wildcats don’t appear to be slowing down. Despite Wednesday’s game looking like somewhat-close, back-and-forth affair, it quickly turned into a blowout and a 77-51 win for Arizona, who improves to 19-0. It was Mo Krivas with the scoring lead; he turned in 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting and 9 rebounds.

Ugly: It was a rough night for Bobby Hurley and Sun Devil men’s hoops last night. ASU fell to West Virginia by a score of 75-63, sliding to 10-9 on the season and 1-5 in conference play. Moe Odum led the score with 17 points, but it was another rough outcome for the Sun Devils.