The Draft & Getting a Return on Jeff Green

[PhoSita]

You undervalue Green big time.  Green has far more value than that.  He's a double digit scorer who is an extremely effective #3 or #4 scorer.

He's paid like an extremely effective #3 or #4 scorer.

In truth he's a just-okay 3rd or 4th scorer who brings little else to the table.

Oh, he is?

Jeff Green is currently paid a little less than $9 million. Other guys who play similar-ish positions and earn similar money include Evans ($10.3 million), Gallinari ($10.1 million), G Wallace ($10.1 million), Curry ($9.9 million), DeRozan ($9.8 million), Millsap ($9.3 million), Young ($8.9 million), Villanueva ($8.5 million), Stuckey ($8.5 million), Ryan Anderson ($8.3 million), Thornton, Butler, and Mayo ($8 million), Ilyasova ($7.9 million), Afflalo ($7.7 million) and Ariza ($7.7 million). Salmons, Gibson, Marvin Williams and Ginobili make around $7.5 million.

These are more or less all the forwards that are paid within $1.5 million annual from Green's salary. Outside of DeRozan and Curry, there aren't any guys in that group that are "extremely efficient".

As a matter of fact, it looks to me like Green is paid exactly like what he (and almost everyone else on the list) is: a guy who can eat minutes and score a little bit, but you're in trouble if you expect them to carry your team.

You noted a number of players I consider significantly better than Green (Young, Ginobili, Millsap, Curry, Derozan, Gallinari, Anderson, Ariza, Afflalo).  A few of the others are bloated contracts left over from the previous CBA.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't mind so much paying in the 7-10 million range for a 3rd or 4th option -- if I already have a couple of really good lead scorers in place, and the guy I'm paying also has at least one other thing that he does really well so he contributes when he's not getting shots or his shots aren't falling. 

It's my belief that Danny Ainge paid Green with the hope that he'd either become a much more productive scorer once fully featured, or that he'd develop in some other area (defense, passing, or somewhere else).  He simply hasn't.

I could go into more detail, but I've already spent a lot of time on this site giving statistical explanations for why Green is just not that remarkable a player.  I'm not the only one.  Green continues as a polarizing player because he drifts through games and then has really notable highlights, and occasionally entire games filled with highlight moments.  Fans, especially casual fans, tend to latch onto the good moments and forget the rest of the time when Green is doing very little that's good. 

I've said many times and I'll say it again, I'd take a lesser scorer who has a more well-rounded impact any day.  I could probably get a player like that for cheaper, too\(Matt Barnes only makes 3.25 million a year, for example).