Stevens trying to help Green get out of his slump

[sed522002]

For his part, coach Brad Stevens refuses to lament what Green has failed to do. Instead, he has put Green's failures on himself and his coaching staff while pledging to put Green in better position to succeed moving forward.

"All of us have had our games where we didn't do our jobs as well as we would have liked to," Stevens said. "To put that on him is not fair to him. I support him. I think he's going to play really well throughout the rest of this year. ... My focus isn't necessarily on how he's done so far, but more on how can I help him to be the best he can be every day."

"The biggest thing for us right now is we just have to be consistent and try to get him the ball against the right matchups and then him take advantage of those matchups," Stevens said. "In some games he gets doubled, and some games he doesn't have a matchup that's advantageous, certainly, as far as on the post goes. But then a lot of times, he does.

"And I think most of the time, what I'm talking about is, being able to get him the ball in the post. In the half court, he's very good down there, he's also good in certain other scenarios that I think we could do more often. I think it's fair for us to continue to explore every which way to help him maximize the way he's playing. And I do think it starts in transition.

"We've got to get him the ball more in transition. Everybody is accountable for that. But at the end of the day, that's the way I look at it. Any time a guy's struggling, it's how can we help him to get a little bit better?"

http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/10404303/boston-celtics-jeff-green-struggling-find-comfort-zone

[Roy H.]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

[sed522002]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

I'm along that line of thinking. He's not built to be the go to player and that's fine.

[GreenWarrior]

I like how every 7 games or so it seems like the team comes out and says "we have to find a way to get jeff green involved".

I thought early on they figured it out by getting him involved early n' often but it seems we forget to do this. we've seen green have some decent games when he gets the ball early n' often. he may not be an aggressive player but we can make him.

[Evantime34]

If they were to restructure the offense for Green, now would be the time to do it. Get him hot right before the trade deadline.

[BleedGreen1989]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

Just out of curiosity Roy, what were your expectations of Green heading into this season?

(Also, any chance we can merge the two Green threads? Didn't see both)

[BballTim]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

  While I'm not defending Green, our distribution when Rondo's not in the game has been pretty poor. Hopefully he'll help with this. While I don't sit at home wishing they'd feed Green on every play I watch long(ish) stretches where Sully will get good position down on the blocks and call for the ball while the guys on the perimeter basically ignore him.

[Roy H.]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

Just out of curiosity Roy, what were your expectations of Green heading into this season?

Pretty much exactly where he is.  15 or so points, 5 or so rebounds.  His shooting efficiency is a little lower than I would have thought.  His demeanor / aggressiveness is pretty much spot on with where I had it pegged.

I'm not one of the fans that ever thought Green would be a superstar.  The decent (but not great) scoring and poor rebounding are always going to be constants.  His defense and outside shooting fluctuate a little more, and those are the two places that determine whether he's a useful starter or a spare part.

[More Banners]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

Unfortunately, I suspect that, since he's a 3pt shooter on a team with few of them, that standing around on the 3pt line is exactly the position the coaching staff has put him in, with Bradley doing more of the moving.

And suddenly, Bradley is an offensive powerhouse (or at least a 2-way player for the 1st time, really), and Green is mediocre.

I think Stevens is suggesting that Green won't be the top scorer every night, or perhaps even most nights, based on matchups, like one would expect of a #1 guy.  But we know that, right?

[BballTim]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

Just out of curiosity Roy, what were your expectations of Green heading into this season?

Pretty much exactly where he is.  15 or so points, 5 or so rebounds.  His shooting efficiency is a little lower than I would have thought.  His demeanor / aggressiveness is pretty much spot on with where I had it pegged.

  Not sure when you started watching the Celts but the more I think about it the more Green's demeanor and comments like these remind me of Easy Ed Pinckney. If you watched the team at the time Larry used to try and feed him the ball and get him going early in games because his aggressiveness would be better for the rest of the game.

[Timdawgg]

At some point, you just have to acknowledge (internally, not publicly) that a player just can't be relied on.  You don't restructure your entire system around a player as mediocre as Jeff Green.  Green needs to be accountable for moving without the ball and getting himself into position, rather than the blame falling on the coaching staff.

Stevens of course knows that.  It's good he's taking a bullet for his player.  I just hope Green doesn't buy that nonsense.  He needs to look into the mirror and step up, but I don't think he's capable.

Just out of curiosity Roy, what were your expectations of Green heading into this season?

Pretty much exactly where he is.  15 or so points, 5 or so rebounds.  His shooting efficiency is a little lower than I would have thought.  His demeanor / aggressiveness is pretty much spot on with where I had it pegged.

  Not sure when you started watching the Celts but the more I think about it the more Green's demeanor and comments like these remind me of Easy Ed Pinckney. If you watched the team at the time Larry used to try and feed him the ball and get him going early in games because his aggressiveness would be better for the rest of the game.

Great point...Spot on...I remember that as well. Bird  totally would try to get him 3-4 quick looks in the paint...He was the same way..Pinckney would totally go 0-4 and have 0 for the game or would end up with 19 and 7 rebounds in 25 minutes...

[jc3celticsphan]

makes sense to feed him more in the post. he realy doesnt have an in-between game so posting him up is a good idea

but with the way he plays not realy an aggressive rebounder he should be a shooting guard...

[mmmmm]

So, basically, Stevens comes out and acknowledges something that several of us on this board have pointed out (that this offense so far has not really used Green optimally) - something that is well supported by lots of data that should be statistically significant now to his assistant, Mr. Cameron -- and the net response on this board is, naturally, to dismiss Stevens as 'taking a Bullet' for Green and once again, pile on with the typical "Green isn't aggressive enough" and "Green is who he is" stuff..

Gee - I suppose it's just not cynical enough for us to take Brad at his word.  I mean, it wouldn't make sense at all for him to start to make changes in his offense now that he (a) has a half-season's worth of data (on what DOESN'T work for an NBA offense, i might add) and (b) he finally will have a real NBA point guard going forward?

Well, it will be interesting to see if they really do change things.

I wouldnt expect everything to look different all at once though.   'Probably need to look at things again after another dozen games or so.  Rondo will probably have some up and down streaks himself.  And the trading deadline looms as a big game-changer that could make all this moot.

[BballTim]

  Can that Stevens guy coach or what?

[pokeKingCurtis]

  Can that Stevens guy coach or what?

Did he coach JG into his 30 odd point performance today?

Had to miss the game.