Jeff Green: The sink or swim signing

[CelticsFanNC]

  I think it is difficult to judge his defense by his time in OKC because they don't put anywhere close to as much emphasis on defense that the Celtics do and they were asking him to play out of position every single night.  I keep hearing he was a bad defender in OKC, so is Durant, so is Westbrook.  They don't defend.

It's also difficult to judge it on his time in Boston because he came in so late and they had very little practice time post trade.  

  Given time in Boston's system I have no doubt he would become at very least a serviceable defender just like others who came here with poor defensive reputations like Ray Allen.  

  Still the only way I want him back is either for the qualifying offer or at a price Ainge deems reasonable.

[cman88]

Either way you cut it this was a good move. Perkins was a average NBA center at best and we traded for the more talented player. We win that trade my friends. The Thunder can have Perkins for all I care. He was overrated in this town.

yeah - that's why we won an NBA title and then got within a 7th game of a second one with Perkins and the team dropped off significantly once Perkins was gone.

when will people get the message - it wasn't about Perk's stats !!!!!

since the trade, Perkins has become the most overrated player from the celtics on this board...lets be honest here. Perkins wouldnt have helped us much in the playoffs..

our problem wasnt so much defense in the playoffs, it was that our offense sputtered in the 4th quarter..and perks 5ppg he averaged for the thunder wouldnt have helped that

[BASS_THUMPER]

we would never know if perk woulda been the difference..

deep down we all know he was part of the chemistry 

[chambers]

There are two things that excite me with the mean machine jeff green.
1) his size/speed and rapidly improving defensive prowess.

I hope it improves.  Last year with the Celts, for instance, he ranked 298th in isolation defense, in terms of points allowed per possession. 

In iso situations, he allowed opponents to score about 30% more points than they scored on Paul Pierce, and to shoot approximately 10 percentage points higher.  Similarly, Green was much worse than Ray in such situations.

Perhaps it's a small sample size, but Green's defense wasn't good, and at times (like when isolated) it was terrible.

I don't think I'll make up my mind on him until he's had a good 12 months of running our system and time to grow comfortable.

He seems like he's got a lot of potential. I think of game 3 vs the Heat in the playoffs and his tenacity and concentration on defense really lifted my opinion of him.
It's still not enough though and for me to be convinced he's not a 'sink' signing then he's going to have to prove himself over a larger sample size.
He could be like a good poker player who's on a downswing or 'running bad'- obviously influenced by being thrown into the new scheme halfway through the season.
Some time off and analysis of his game over the off season could do wonders. (fingers crossed).