in 100% seriousness, Jeff Green needs some testosterone therapy and some ritalin or some kind of amphetamine medication for ADHD.
Jeff Green has the far superior tools of the two, he's more athletic and physically gifted.
The only thing that's keeping Green from being in serious All Star discussions is his attitude and mental fortitude.
The guy is just plain soft.
Right. How, exactly, are we measuring how "soft" he is? Do we poke him?
By how many points he scores? Every one wants him to score more points on a "consistent" basis, right?
What the heck is he supposed to do about that? He can't score more points if he doesn't get more shots. He doesn't even get to touch the ball on a huge percentage of our possessions. He runs down the court, calling for the ball only to watch a guard dribble up to the arc and launch a 3.
I've already shown how the number of shots he takes is pretty clearly in the hands of the point guards on this team. When on the floor with Pressey (a 'pass first' PG) Green takes a massive 30% more shots (and scores 30% more points) than when on the floor with Crawford (a 'shoot first' PG). Green's USG rate is just 21% with Crawford. It is 26% with Pressey. The latter is closer to what you'd expect with a first-option scorer.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Green's minutes have been on the floor with Crawford, not Pressey.
But the time on the floor with Pressey is proof that the "problem" isn't just within Green's own control. What other players do (or don't do) matters.
Folks need to stop with the fiction that the team around a player (and the coach) don't have a big say in how a player performs.
If Green were scoring 30% more he'd be averaging 22 points per game. Would that be "tough" enough?
As long as we continue to run the offense through guys like Crawford (and Bradley was no better when he was running it) though, Green is not going to get more shots off.
Obviously, we have no idea how it will go with Bayless. He's at least more of a 'PG' than 'SG', but his assist numbers historically aren't that great.
Or, for that matter, how it will go with Rondo. But we can imagine that Rondo might pass a little more and shoot a little less.
Jeff Green passes up open shots.
Some games he's like a caged gorilla that's been unleashed.
Other games, he's on another planet.
I agree his usage should be higher, and that playing the SF position he needs to get the ball more which is hard with our horrid guard rotation at the moment.
Unfortunately (in my opinion) he doesn't command the ball enough. He talks about being the number one option on this team, but he doesn't demand the ball. He doesn't want to be 'the man' unless he feels like it.
Not that it means much, but my wife is a psychologist and diehard Celtics fan and she agrees. The energy is connected, but not all the lights are running with JG.
Some guys have it, some guys don't.
Of course this is all our own opinion, but I believe a huge test for Jeff will be when Rondo returns and starts giving him the best and easiest passes on the button in the NBA. Will anything change?
Great players WANT the ball. Jeff Green doesn't want the ball. He wants to help Rondo win.
Rondo, KG, Pierce, Ray Allen- they are all killers. They show no mercy and want to be the man.
Jeff Green wants to carry their luggage for them.
What is, "Chambers never watched Kevin Garnett when he played for the Timberwolves," Trebek.
The big knock on KG before he came to the Celtics was that, for all his insanity, he was a shirking violet "when it really mattered," "when the game was on the line," or "when the real leaders step up." Pick your empty sports platitude about shying away from the moment, and KG got hit with it while he was in the frozen tundra of Minnesota.
Well you don't have to be a jeopardy genius to know that
comparing KG in Minny and JG in Boston results in completely polar opposites. KG was a league MVP- he put everything on the line every night- I don't recall a playoff series in Minny where Garnett didn't play his heart out every game.
Being stuck on that team of bums for 25 seasons was always going to draw criticism I guess.
Rondo gets called out for not giving 100% every game- but when the game counts, he doesn't leave anything out there.
KG and Rondo are killers. Jeff Green is not.
Killers are cut from a different cloth and killers win championships. Even smiling assassins like Tim Duncan.