A few weeks have passed since the NBA world got the news on the blockbuster trade that sent Rockets’ Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns for Kevin Durant.
Following the trade, Jalen Green penned down an emotional message for the team, saying how much he would miss the franchise and the city. However, just days after writing that message for the city, Green got a bit more candid on what went down with the Rockets and how he felt about it.
During the Suns’ media day interviews, Green was asked how he felt about being traded from the team that drafted him. The former Rockets player’s response indicates that he knew the move was coming.
“Like you said, at first it was disappointing,” said Green at first upon the interviewer’s question on his initial reaction to the Rockets trading him. He immediately corrected himself.
“It wasn’t disappointing, it was more shocking. And you kind of get over it, especially when they’re excited to have me here [with the Suns].”
Jalen Green emphasized that, despite a blockbuster move that took him away from the team that drafted him, he was not disappointed but rather shocked to hear the news. The key difference here is the expectations.
According to reports, the Rockets had been trying to trade Green for a while before they ended up doing it. Therefore, Green had a reasonable anticipation that if he was reading reports that players like Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, and Jabari Smith Jr. are untouchable in the talks, if a trade were to go through, it would naturally include Green.
Green played all 82 games in the regular season for the Rockets in 2024-25. In the duration, he averaged 21.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists while shooting 35.4% from beyond the three-point line.
While he was blossoming into a star in Houston, his horrific run in the Playoffs made him the primary candidate to be traded if the Rockets decided to make a major change at the time. And they did as he averaged 13.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists while shooting only 29.5% from the three-point line in the seven games he played against the Warriors in the Playoffs.
Hence, Green did not get any news that he was not anticipating from before. However, he was probably shocked to hear that he was considered valuable enough to be a part of the trade for Durant, and learning the destination of where he is headed, considering there were rumors that even the Suns could trade him.
A culmination of these two facts may have been the reason Green was shocked, but he made sure to clarify that he was not disappointed to hear about the trade.
