Pop Calls Out Danny Green - "Huge defensive error"

[024]

leonard didn't contest the shot very well. if you watch it in very slow motion and from a different angle, the ball was already near waiters' head and waiters was already jumping before leonard starts extending his hand. he got bogged down on the screen and was slow to recover, which gave waiters the space needed to shoot a relatively open shot. it might look closer on the normal camera angle but that angle is deceptive. there was more space between them than was shown. pop and leonard both knew this, that is why pop gave him the opportunity to make it up by giving him the game winning 3.

[Chinook]

leonard didn't contest the shot very well. if you watch it in very slow motion and from a different angle, the ball was already near waiters' head and waiters was already jumping before leonard starts extending his hand. he got bogged down on the screen and was slow to recover, which gave waiters the space needed to shoot a relatively open shot. it might look closer on the normal camera angle but that angle is deceptive. there was more space between them than was shown. pop and leonard both knew this, that is why pop gave him the opportunity to make it up by giving him the game winning 3.

Interesting point, and it ties into the post that benefactor made above this one. That was a definite coaching moment. It reminds me of Pop giving Green the chance to come back immediately after making huge mistakes in the Nets game. He's usually good at not letting a young player sit down without a chance to correct their errors. He even gave Green multiple chances last night, and he just didn't get it done.

The Spurs have on their hands a pair of wings with the potential to really lock down two positions for several more years. But they are both really streaky. I hope Pop has a chance to mold them into mature players before he hangs them up.

[Pasta Batman]

Good post. No reason to feel bad about defending him. Most of the posters up here have the critical thinking ability of a brain damaged chimp.

What is going on with Green now is not much different than what went on with Parker when he was young. The hard pushing from Pop, IMO, was instrumental in Parker reaching his full potential as a player. Pop saw there was more and squeezed Parker until he got it out of him. He knew there was greatness in him so he stayed on him until he saw it on the floor. Now with Green, of course, you are not talking about the same level of player...but the method is the same. Pop can see that Green has another level in him so he is staying on him until Green gets all the little things out of his game that are holding him back. All the mistakes that Green is making are correctable and Pop is simply pushing him like he did Parker until Green arrives at the place he should be at as a player. How Green responds mentally will determine the end result.

Also, Green is the type of player who is willing to take criticism. This is key, just like it's been with Parker, and why he keeps improving.

[ChumpDumper]

Green is inconsistent in his defensive role, and honestly isn't a finished product. His ceiling is more limited than Leonard's for sure, but it simply hasn't been reached yet. That's why you see the kind of treatment others described above. I'm sure that can be annoying to people who are used to (expecting?) the kind of consistency they got from Bruce and the like, but when Green is good, he's very good.

[Pasta Batman]

Green is inconsistent in his defensive role, and honestly isn't a finished product. His ceiling is more limited than Leonard's for sure, but it simply hasn't been reached yet. That's why you see the kind of treatment others described above. I'm sure that can be annoying to people who are used to (expecting?) the kind of consistency they got from Bruce and the like, but when Green is good, he's very good.

Even then, Bruce was a product on offense throughout his years. The shot was there a lot, but then in his later years he started to develop that dribble to a midranger and pull up. Bruce in his day got a lot of flak, I remember. It's just hindsight always makes everything look nicer.

[ChumpDumper]

Even then, Bruce was a product on offense throughout his years. The shot was there a lot, but then in his later years he started to develop that dribble to a midranger and pull up. Bruce in his day got a lot of flak, I remember. It's just hindsight always makes everything look nicer.

Well Bruce was an anomaly in developing relatively or very late in his career. Pretty amazing looking back. I like to think it influenced guys like Parker to never quit improving as well.