How was his plus/minus in college though?
I watched him play in the second pre-season game against Houston, and to be honest, I was afraid he was headed back to D-League because he wasn't flashy. I'm not trying to spin the guy. But you shouldn't try to combine Freshman/Soph stats off the bench with his last two years. But mostly, you shouldn't bother with the points stats at all.
He plays solid defense (and did in college). He gets a ridiculous number of blocks for a guy his size. He shoots a good percentage from the 3P line, and he's not a foul machine. Those are things the Spurs need. Probably all NBA teams, but Pop appreciates them.
Echhh... maybe I am spinning the guy. But not for his points and boards stats.
And BTW - things like his verticals being better than Kawhi Leonard (and I think things like lane agility too, if I remember right). That's not spin, it's fact. He's got more athleticism than most people seem to expect. The blocks and steals are no accident. The points? I hope he can keep it up, but even if he doesn't he'll earn a place on the floor. Just like he did at NC.
How was his plus/minus in college though?
And you sound pret-tay pret-tay gay.
Kawhi doesn't have good hops. Niether his standing vert nor his max vert were impressive.
I think green is the real deal defensively, his lateral speed is ELITE for someone his size, by far the best perimeter defender the spurs have had since Bowen. Very quick feet and active hands, he's looks to be a lock down defender being able to guard the 123 spots, if he keeps this up establish himself as one of the best defenders in the nba, he shut down terry, ellis, and did a great job yesterday of slowing lawson down.
Someone doesen't watch Curb Your Enthusiasm.
since he made into the rotation, bonner has been playing less minutes which is very good....
+29? Church is back in session.
3 Blocks tonight against the Blazers![]()
I was in awe of his hops when he'd jump to get those rebounds. Pretty impressive.
He settled down a bit tonight and found more of his center instead of doing too much. That play he made on Aldridge at the rim was sick.
He definitely got full of himself for a second and tried way too hard instead of playing his game. Tonight he looked like the preacher.
I've been watching him pretty close. Those rebounds are about more than hops. He's got some court awareness, and he puts himself in position early. And he does it a lot.
I mentioned it in the game blog, but there was one play tonight where Tiago got an easy rebound. The reason it was easy was because Green was boxing his ass off against LaMarcus Aldridge. He gets position, but he's also pretty damned strong about fighting to keep it. He's not just accidentally in the right place at the right time.
He makes some mistakes, but I'm telling you the kid is playing legitimate defense. He blows up a lot of plays in ways that don't show up on the stat sheet, and he causes a lot of missed shots. Even when he's out of place on defence, he usually does a pretty good job of recovering and contesting the shot. If he keeps it up he's going to start getting credit for it.
Sometimes he doesn't make the right play, but loads of other times, he does.
Dude's a baller.
Over are the days of playing small at SG and SF.
In other words, the kid ain't lazy like 99% of the players coming out of college today.
The effort, the smarts, and the confidence are all clearly evident.
I decided to run Kawhi Leonard's numbers for the last 4 games. (Since he started getting more minutes.) They're impressive, especially for a rookie. He's averaged 35 minutes, so his per/36 numbers are almost identical to his game stats - but I calculated the per/36 anyway. Just for grins, I decided to run Green's numbers for the same 4 games. (Remember - that includes Green's worst game to date, and leaves out his best. He's averaged 18.75 minutes, so I also calculated his per/36 numbers. I don't like using per/36 for guys playing 5-10 minutes per game, but for 18.75 minutes, they have some meaning.)
I'm not going to post the numbers, because it will just make some people all crazy-like, thinking I am saying that Green is as good as Kawhi, or that Green should be starting. And I just don't feel like feeding the trolls tonight. But I will say this much: For a sixth man, playing roughly 19 minutes, Green's production has been pretty damn juicy. And the per/36 numbers compare very favorably to Kawhi's.
There's no point in debating whether he could keep it up for 35 minutes - he's not a starter, and the Spurs don't need him to be one. And there's no point in trying to compare him directly to Kawhi, for a number of reasons. But for the time he is on the court (and it's been a respectable amount of time recently) he's making a VERY solid contribution. His Block and Rebound numbers are pretty damned gaudy, for a 6'6" guy playing the perimeter. His assists aren't too shabby, either. And it just gets worse if you go back five games, and include what he did to Denver.
The one stat I will mention is his free throw attempts. It's one of my pet stats, because guys who can get to the line win close games. Green averaged 4.8 FTA's per/36 over those games. That can be a little misleading for guys not getting starter minutes, until they get a lot more games in the sample. But it's a good sign when an unknown rookie can get himself to the line like that. For comparison, Green has the same number of FTA's as Kawhi in 2/3 the minutes. And he's getting to the line a lot more often than R.J. or Neal.
When the Spurs were winning les, they always had a few guys who could come off the bench and put up good numbers, on any given night. It's what you need when the big guns are having a bad outing. I'm excited, because I think Green is one of those guys. That, along with his defense, is more than I would have even hoped for in the pre-season. As long as the Church of Danny Green remains Our Lady Of The Unexpected Sixth Man, I'm onboard.
Edit: BTW - has anyone noticed that he's 8-14 (.571) from the 3P line since that Denver game? 13-27 (.481) for the season? I swear, I like the guy because of his defense. But it's hard to ignore stuff like that.
Last edited by GSH; 01-14-2012 at 04:13 AM.
it was weird seeing him play point lol
GSH - Danny gets a fair amount of FT's because he gets in the lane and trys to go to the hoop. Neal usually will pull up for a mid range jumper in that instance. And while Kawhi's offense has started to open up, he isn't usually the guy thats creating for himself. This all favors bigger FT numbers for Green.
The most frustrating thing is that Danny Green will be a FA this offseason and the Spurs will have to pay way more than his current 800k price tag to keep him (although it shouldn't be an unreasonable amount). It would have been nice if he had a cheap 3 year contract like Neal and Thomas are playing on. Still, thats nit-picking.
The only hole I see in his defense is that he STILL doesn't chop his steps when closing out on a shooter. He thinks he can get their jump shot, and blocking a jumper is one of the hardest things to do in the NBA. When you're closing on a shooter, you really have two roles: you're a distraction, and you're a barrier to keep him from putting the ball on the floor and getting into the paint. Close quickly, using small steps and keeping one hand up. That way, you can react laterally if need be, and won't be over committed or off balance if it's a ball fake.
Other than that' he's ballin'. I think we've found our weak side shot blocker.![]()
I don't think he'll draw MLE interest. His numbers won't warrant that, and frankly, most NBA GM's are dumb as dirt. They'd rather sign a chucker who scores 20 points on 19.5 shots.
The SUPER good news is that between Green and Kawhi, they have totally made RJ expendable in the offseason, so the tax threat is gone. If they amnesty RJ, and get Tim to take maybe 40-50% of his current figure, they could pay their guys, AND go after someone with the MLE if they have a player in their sites.
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