Gerald Green

Gerald Green
SF – 6’7, 205lbs - 33 years old - 11 years of experience

There is not a match-up in the world that Gerald Green seems to be able to guard at league average level. Just can’t seem to do it, even with his favourable physical profile. He takes risks his athleticism only sometimes lets him get away with, he makes mental lapses, and every switch seems to baffle him. At age 32, with 13 professional seasons and 11 NBA seasons under his belt, it seems unlikely he will ever start being good at this now.

But then again, if you can’t slow down your match-up, at least make sure you outscore them. And that part, Green can do.

One of the world’s most confident and capable outside shooters, Green absolutely gunned up the threes from the minute he arrived in Houston. He would shoot them early, and he would shoot them often. He would shoot off the catch, mostly, yet he would also shoot just as comfortably off of a dribble or two. He would shoot them even if there were no offensive rebounders in the same town. Green was a shooter, a wing who would run to the wings and the corners whenever he could, and a shooter was all he has ever wanted to be.

That was about it. Occasionally, he would run the court. Very occasionally, he would turn a three-point attempt into a step-in two. And very very occasionally, he would drive all the way to the basket. None of that really mattered, though. Green was in to get shots up, get buckets, sway momentum and cause problems for the opposition. He could not be in a better situation for his talents right now.

Player Plan: Expiring prorated minimum salary contract. See if he will take another. After all, a shade more than $2 million, can live at home, big time role on a title contender….it’s a good offer.

Gerald Green
SG/SF, 6’7, 205lbs, 31 years old, 10 years of experience

Sometimes the back-up small forward, sometimes the third string shooting guard, sometimes the starting power forward. Inconsistency defines his career; nevertheless, in a deep bench utilitarian role, consistency does not matter too much. If the shot's not going in, he just needn't play. Played a limited role without complaint and is always good for some threes, or at least the threat of them. A minimum salary player at this point who may have to move on once more due to the roster spots crunch, but who would merit a return for one more year.

Player Plan: Expiring minimum salary contract. Retain for minimum or do not retain at all.

[...] The lure of first-round picks is in what they can yield, not what they always do. It is well established, of course, that many first-round picks are failures relative to expectation, and this is truer the lower they are. However, first-rounders can yield star talent, star talent that has no choice but to sign with you. It can yield quality role players for basement prices, and it can yield contributors in any form you choose. Most importantly, however, first-rounders are always young and cheap. Bad teams need this to get good, and good teams need this to stay good when the market forces and punitive luxury taxes designed to break them up necessitate they cut costs. Talent is talent, but cheap, young talent is the best type of talent.

Back at the start of the summer, Utah took on a whopping $25 million in salary that it didn't want in the forms of Andris Biedrins, Richard Jefferson and Brandon Rush, purely to acquire two first-round picks and three second-round picks from the Golden State Warriors. The Jazz did this because it was more beneficial to their long-term rebuilding goal to target first-round picks, and that amount of money is now the cost of acquiring them. Or at least, it should be. First-round picks should be a valued commodity, much more than they were. Now, it seems as though they finally are.

A cursory look at the market indicates this change in philosophy. The last few deals to have included first-round picks include:


- Washington trading a pick (top-12 protected in 2014, top-10 protected through 2019, thereafter unprotected) along with Emeka Okafor in exchange for Marcin Gortat.

- Indiana trading a pick (lottery protected through 2019, thereafter unprotected) along with Miles Plumlee and Gerald Green in exchange for Luis Scola

- Boston acquiring first-rounders in all of 2014, 2016 and 2018 as a part of the Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett deal

- New Orleans acquiring Jrue Holiday and Pierre Jackson in exchange for the rights to Nerlens Noel and a 2014 first-round pick

- Toronto acquiring a 2016 first-round pick from New York -- along with two second-round picks, Steve Novak and Marcus Camby -- in exchange for Andrea Bargnani

In that list, we mostly see first-rounders traded for quality. Hall of Fame players like Pierce and Garnett, fringe All-Stars like Holiday or non-lottery picks for a legitimate starting center in Gortat. The ones where we don't see that -- the deals for Scola and Bargnani -- therefore stand out as bad deals for that reason. The inclusion of the first-round picks in each instance leaves the recipient team drastically overpaying for backup-caliber forwards. And if he's not re-signed or extended, the Gortat deal might join them.

Gerald Green — Rather unfortunately a poster child for low basketball IQ’s, Green nevertheless is one of the best talents on this list. He demonstrated this at the D-League showcase, scoring 18.6 points per game in a variety of ways, demonstrating that he is more than just a physical profile. He is, however, fantastically inconsistent still.

Gerald Green - Last year, Gerald Green played in Russia. Playing for Lokomotiv Kuban, Green averaged 16.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, shooting 44% from the field and 35% from three point range. Unfortunately, there's no stat for whether he "gets it" yet.

Another ex-NBA draft pick to have signed in Italy is Milovan Rakovic, whose rights are owned by the Magic. Rakovic was one of the best players in the Russian Superleague last year, averaging 15.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in 25 minutes per game for Spartak St Petersburg. He's cashing in on that and moving to Italy to play for Italian powerhouse Montepaschi Siena. There's lots of upheaval in Russia at the moment; the Superleague teams have all signed a pact vowing to break away from the current governing body, with whom they are thoroughly disenfranchised, and to begin running operations on their own. Amidst this upheaval, many players have left; Spartak also released James White (14.8/3.7) and Goran Suton (played 94 minutes all season). Additionally, Unics Kazan have released veteran Lithuanian jumpshooter Saulius Å tombergas, and Lokomotiv Kuban have released their imports James Gist, Andre Owens and Gerald Green. It's probably fair to say that Green will not be returning to the Dallas Mavericks.