J. Kyle Mann

I'm with you on overall your appraisal of his performance in the first half of this game, JV.

He felt like the best player on the floor at a time where Shea was also getting his, where so many play.

Chet was having great moments.

So many members of the Thunder were having incredible runs.

But all of it kind of felt fueled by Jalen Williams in one way or another.

And he occupies this really particular place on the team where I feel like he's the fulcrum of a lot of their versatility.

That's not really a problem in a series like this.

They don't need to flex into every version of the Thunder in order to beat a team like the Suns.

But you could even see in the second half,

boy, would it have been nice to like sick him on Dylan Brooks when Dylan Brooks was going off.

And so having a one size fits all defender who can be moved all across the floor, all around the chessboard, who's just as good in help as he is on the ball.

And even when he is on the ball or just in help, he's so quick at accelerating into the offense and like the fervor that they need to really be a formidable offensive team.

Losing all of that potentially for any period of time is tough.

And I just hope for his sake and the Thunder's sake and all of our sakes as we kind of want the best playoff possible, that he's not going to miss a significant amount of time.

It's just that hamstrings typically are, you're going to miss a significant amount of time.

Yeah, the roller coaster of the Jalen Green experience.

I am enjoying less and less.

And frankly, even when the highs are higher, it just makes the whiplash that much worse of how bad and ultimately self-destructive he can be in some of these contexts.

So he certainly had his moments in the play-in and playoffs both so far.

But he's also going to do stuff like this.