High lottery picks play as much as they possibly can play because teams know experience matters. It's been this way since forever too unless the player is hurt. If you noticed, JC and the other young players get garbage time minutes. Garbage time is prove it time, the only players that don't play garbage time are players that don't have anything to prove. Green still has everything to prove. But you hit on the reason rookies usually play in garbage time and why that's always been a thing...because it is better competition than the gleague, it's better competition than the NCAA, it's still great competition for Green to get run in on. I don't agree that playing in 20+ blow outs doesn't help him at all, in fact, JC did nothing but play in garbage time and we watched his confidence grow and grow into what he is now which is a more useful player than he was at the start of the season. If there is one thing Green can gain in garbage time its confidence and confidence is vitally important in this game. It's a lot easier to get that confidence against NBA scrubs than it is against the Jimmy Butler's of the world. Other than guys like Zion though who can barely play at all I've never seen a rookie get protected minutes. If you're that worried of a guy breaking down then you may as well trade him and let him be someone else's problem.
I was looking at rookie stats and was sure that Green was actually the best offensive rookie this year but this confirms it? I think Green has actually been the best rookie offensively of the bunch, as promised, but it doesn't show because guys like Cade and Giddey are focal points of their offense while Green isn't. Hopefully the exit of Gordon and Wood will help with Green growing as a player....I mean lets all hope Ego and Wood ain't here next year...
Not sure it really confirms Green being the best offensive rookie. Offense is much more than scoring, but I do think it is a nice contrast to other stats that suggests he is the worst player in the NBA. Green will likely be the best scorer in this entire draft and even more importantly, he will likely be the best self created scorer in the draft.
I am not worried about Green. All players need to learn when to shoot the jumper, when to drive, when to attack the rim and when to pull back for a shot or throw up a floater, and when to pass. I think we as fans underestimate how hard that is to do for a young player and expect a lot from talented guys. Just takes time.
I was impressed by the garbage time stat padding, he almost had as many points as shot attempts by the end! Legend confirmed.
Here @DaDakota I pulled a random 1997 game. It's still when Kobe was 18 so it was in his rookie season; but Kobe outweighs our current Green back then. Kobe was nothing to write home to mom about back then. *He finally enters the game with 4 minutes left in the first. *His first possession is a nice 12 footer near the free throw line. *Gets pushed under the rim trying to get an offensive rebound a little later. *His second possession (early in the 2nd quarter) palms the ball travel) ..Riley immediately pulls him and subs out Kobe.. I stopped watching. Yawn fest. Let me know if you finish watching the video and Kobe actually does something. I've watched Bulls vs Lakers in the finals the following season. Kobe was 19 then. Kobe gets in the game somewhere at the end of the first. First possession drives (left side of rim) gets bumped lightly and does not absorb contact well and launches a brick up against the backboard. Same crap as Green.....but Kobe walked on water... so no, he will never get to Kobe level? Many could watch Kobe back when he was 18 and 19 and say, "Kobe will never be Kobe some day." Crazy
We’d need a Chapter 3 for that one. For someone who is playing regular game minutes when the game is close in score (tight game) I would argue that that part of the game is more helpful. For someone like Christopher who could not get major minutes, of course playing garbage time has a different meaning, playing garbage time would cover majority of his playing time right now.
Scoring has been one part of the offensive game. Westbrook showed only a part of his game is about winning, the other part is stat stuffing. Scoring a lot of points but giving up a lot of points does not do the trick.
Last night’s 20 point game pushes Green up to 14.8 ppg, tying Mobley who has really slowed down on the offensive end recently. For emphasis, Mobley’s last big offensive game was 10 games ago (29 points). Since then, in the last 9 games, Mobley has averaged 13 points. In that same span, Green has averaged 17.
He needs to have Scottie Barnes type of touches. Detroit sucks too so I wonder how much garbage time case plays in
I mean I think for Green adn every other rookie what is most important is just getting used to NBA speed and talent. When he's already dropping 20 a night then we start to ask "Can he score in clutch minutes?" and stuff like that. We start asking those questions when we have to worry about playoff match ups. Right now...we just need to make sure he can actually match up with average NBA talent and garbage time at least does that and lets him build confidence that he can score in this league.
Yeah, Roco is a great defender. I have this thing where role players get on the teams they deserve. It's no coincidence that RoCo is constantly on playoff teams...because playoff teams want him. If RoCo is on a bad team a playoff team will trade for him given enough time. So yeah, it's not a surprise that Green struggled against him and likely will struggle tonight given its a back to back against a team with a DPOY manning the paint and solid perimeter defenders. I mean, people that watch NBA ball for years night to night know this. He's a rookie. Not Jordan in his prime. So he's going to struggle sometimes especially against soild and good defensive teams.
I hate to say this but Green's pull up midrange game is....kind of good? I have him at 6-11 over the last 10 games. Course he's shooting 40% on pull up 3's on the same stretch, so, whatever.
Absolutely. What I was trying to say is he was one of the players playing during garbage time so it's not like they had total scrubs out there. He scored 5 points in the 4th off of Covington, 2 points on a steal and breakaway. People are dismissing his pts in the 4th like they are trash but those 7 points are quality pts no matter when they occured
Weren't the 29 against Rockets (Wood), too? That definitely devalues that game as pretty much any big man has big games against Rockets
Doesn't look very bust-like in that context. Also lends a lot of weight to the argument that his numbers would be better if they ran more for him....
