Before Gay's shoulder injury I would have agreed with you. But ever since his injury and Memphis's shift to inside-out basketball, Gay just hasn't been the same. He's an excellent post player and solid off of one or two bounces, but aside from that he's a bad jumpshooter who takes way too many jumpshots. Three quarters of his shots are jumpers, and his eFG is 39%. That doesn't help a team win.
As far as defense goes, there aren't many reliable ways to quantify that but I see them as similar in the sense that they're both capable of playing very good defense when they're dialed in, but both struggle with consistency. I think Green makes the effort more often. Gay gets more steals, but Green has the added dimension of being a capable weakside shotblocker.
On the topc of Gay, I completely agree. He's one of the most overrated players in the league, and it would only reinforce my perception that the Raptors are one of the worst managed teams in the league if they do decide to sign him to an extensions as has been rumored.
There's a reason Hollinger had Gay moved as soon as the Grizzlies hired him, and they've barely skipped a beat despite moving their leading scroer. The Raptors on the other hand are as bad as ever.
On topic, Paul George is a far superior player to Jeff Green, and 4 years younger. They are not about equal.
Paul George is a #1 option on the Pacers.
With KG out, Jeff Green is a #2 option on the Celtics.
Statistically, the two are about as even as you can get with neither player dominating one another in any category.
George grabs more rebounds and gets more assists, but he also has more plays run for him and has the ball in his hand a lot more than Green has had over the course of the entire season.
When Jeff Green was 22, his per 36 were pretty much an exact replica of George, the caveat was Jeff Green produced those statistics as a 3rd option within the flow of the offense.
Has Jeff's production improved since his 2nd year, not by a big margin, not by much if any. So Jeff has shown he is a consistent producer as a strong role player.
Move Jeff to the Celtics and his role is even more reduced to that of a role player and people want this guy to produce better than stats?
That is illogical.
The only way for Jeff to produce monster numbers is to cut him loose like Houston has done with James Harden.
In a small sample size as Jeff Green is our starting PF, Jeff has shown he can produce big numbers on efficient offensive prowess....now the efficiency will not last over the course of an 82 season, but the production will still be up there.
Paul George has improved considerably every year, Green's best statistical season was his second. Granted hes played behind Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Pierce etc. for his career so it's difficult to judge what he'd be capable of as the number one option; but aside from the recent stretch we haven't seen anything to suggest he's capable of handling that role on a consistent basis. The Pacers aren't exactly a scrub team, and George has still emerged as the number one option ahead of Granger.
Jeff's biggest problem seems to be lacking the confidence to produce every night unlike George. George is already far more consistent than Jeff has ever been, and is years away from his prime whereas Jeff should be entering his. He's also easily a better defender.
I think a lot of people are thinking too highly of Green based on his recent play, even though he's been known to to be inconsistent yet occasionally great throughout his career so far. When he proves he can be the number one option every night like George is then it will be a different story.
George has not been the clearcut no.1 option for Indiana. He's only averaging 0.7 more points per game than West. Indiana's winning far more because of their defense and rebounding than they are because George is their no.1 offensive option. Indiana's success has been a total team effort. Hibbert's protected the basket extremely well. They get balanced scoring from their starting lineup and several bench guys have stepped up, particularly rookie Orlando Johnson. They all bust their butts playing a physical brand of defense. George has been really good as a two-way player and I would certainly take him over Green but he's not in a different stratosphere as Green.
I don't disagree, Indiana is a strong and well balanced team. But even Granger has come out and said It's George's team now. I'm not saying he's an elite scorer, but he's proved he's capable of handling being the primary option every night for a season, whereas Jeff has only done so for a handful of games. I really think the age difference needs to be appreciated more too. I have a lot of respect for players who continue to improve every season, which Jeff frankly has not.
Consistency on both ends of the floor is the main factor that separates them for me.
Topic: Players with skill sets similar to that of Jeff Green (Read 10018 times)