Jeff Green showing some 'grit + balls' ? Avg 18 pts 10 rebounds last 3 games

[mmmmm]

Nice win against the Raptors. Uncle Sleepy's contribution: 5 boards, 4-16 shooting, 1 assist. Back to normal (although an unusually bad shooting night)

Green has an injured shoulder (from early in the Houston game).

I was at the Raptors game tonight.  You could see plain as day that he was not fully extending on his shots.

Green was very active on the floor though.  Very vocal and directing traffic on defense.

[ManUp]

green is what he is at this point...a nice player who can give you 16ppg but nothing more.

I was hoping he would be in the 18ppg game range like pierce was when he was the #1 option. but it seems that Green is going to be what he is at this point

Is he the #1 option though? Avery Bradley takes more shots than him. Among SFs, Jeff Green is 12th in minutes per game, 10th in FGA, 9th in points per game.

Sure, he's not this "powerhouse" 18-20 minute scorer some of you wanted him to be, but since when was that a realistic expectation, particularly in a season where we've been playing without a PG?

There are 6 SFs in the league scoring 18 points or more, and they're getting at the very least 3 more minutes of playing time per game or shooting the ball 3 more times than Green a game.

So yes, Green is not this miracle worker, but he's not as bad or as disappointing as people are making him out to be. It's not like we're paying MAX money for him either... the alternatives to him aren't as abundant either.

He is what he is, as you mentioned, a solid player to have... expecting him to carry the team on his shoulders is unrealistic and absurd to measure him on those standards in my opinion.

It's not just Avery who shoots more than Green.  By per-minute stats, Green is 4th on the team in FGA/min behind Sully, Bradley and Bayless (who is clearly now one of the 'rotation players' getting 20+ mpg).  Green trails Sully, Bayless and is tied with Avery for USG%.   On most team's the "#1 option" would have USG% well above 25%.  The only player on this team with that high a USG rate is Sully, at 25.2%.   Green's USG is way down at 22.7%, a typical 3rd or 4th option number

In our current 'democracy offense' (everyone gets a vote/shot) Sully is the closest thing we treat as a '#1 option'.

Your points of comparison to other SFs are true.   Green touches the ball just under 48 times a game, ranking him 55th among all players who have played 34+ games and averaging 30+ mpg.   The list of SFs who are getting more touches per game than he is include:

Player      touches per game    pts per touch
Lebron James     73.8            0.35
Paul George      71.3            0.32
Nicolas Batum    68.3            0.20
Kevin Durant     65.8            0.45
Thaddeous Young  62.9            0.28
Josh Smith       56.5            0.28
Shawn Marion     51.1            0.22
Amir Johnson     49.8            0.22
Jeff Green       47.8            0.34

If ranked by 'points per touch', Green would be 3rd, behind Durant and Lebron.

Green averages receiving just 1.2 touches per game 'in close' (within 12 feet of the basket).  Green takes 7.1 shots per game within this range (55% of all his shots).  Thus most of his 'in close' shots are a product of his own drives.  He converts in-close shots at 50.6%.

Green averages just 3.2 catch-and-shoot attempts per game (despite having an eFG% of 52% on catch-and-shoot FGAs).

Basically, this boils down to Green being the recipient of a pass in a scoring opportunity ('in close' or catch-and-shoot) only about 4.4 times per game.  The bulk of his shots are being generated with drives of his own from outside or unassisted shots from outside.

There is no way that is indicative of a player being treated as a '#1 option', despite the fact that he is converting the few chances he gets with remarkable efficiency.

Now, that doesn't mean Green is being purposely marginalized by our offense.  I think our offense is not structured (or may not capable) of running very many designed plays for anyone.   Mostly our offense seems to consist of the ball being passed from player to player who looks for his own shot for a few seconds before passing it along.   We don't seem to run very many plays that actually create a shot opportunity for a player.

The ball also sits in our PG's hands too long.  Crawford is averaging over 5 seconds per touch.   He needs to be more decisive.  A typical top PG will average under 5 seconds per touch.   As it is, our offense is taking several precious tenths of a second too long to get going.

Green's lack of touches and lower shot attempt numbers have more to do with lack of aggression than it does people taking the ball out of his hands. Just about everyone on this team has been given the green light on offense. Green is the only one who doesn't make the most of the freedom. Let's face it Green is just a passive player.