The guy is intriguing, he is very young, like 22, and has sick athleticism and can shoot, he needs to be coached up....and be around professionals.... Sometimes players like him finally GET IT...other times they don't....but he is such a low risk player with potentially BIG pay off, you have to take that shot. DD
i'm not sure about all this. not disputing it either. if the guy couldn't beat out mike harris, it tells me either he sucked bad or morey was out of his mind temporarily when we let him go.
It was not down to him and Harris the Rockets needed another PF when Landry got injured and knew that Harris could fill that role immediatly, so they signed him and the only guy they could cut was Harris. I think the Rockets gave him a "hey we will still sign you this offseason" and that is the reason he didn't sign with anyone else late in the year, even though he had a few offers. Do I think he will become a player, I have no idea, but I hope so....as a Rocket. DD
Yeah, I hope they resign him. Ideal scenerio for me is trade for artest and let green swing the 2 backup spots. He can earn 15mins behind tracy and 13mins behind Artest. That way you always have that definite beside him. Playing everyday against those two can help develop you as a player. Speaking of player development, I don't think people realize how little the nba practices. That's kinda why if the rox are going to alter the roster, do it before hand and give ur team that time to iron out the wrinkles.
He's more useful than Loren Woods is on our roster. After we trade Woods, Harris, Hayes etc in a package deal, we'll obviously have some roster room. Gerald Green would be great in filling out one of those vacant roster spots.
I saw Gerald play against Rashard in the Fonde Summer Hoop League, which by the way Rashard plays harder in the summer than he does for Orlando (go figure). He pushed Gerald around and posted him up at will. However, I did see Gerald go back at him on the offensive end and score a couple of jumpers including a deep 3. He was kinda in awe of Rashard.
DD i'm not disagreeing with anything you said but when I got to thinking about players similar to him (little to no college, amazing athlete, questionable bball iq, and can't stick with one team) I can't think of one player who ended up "getting it".
i will wait to the pre-season camp to make any judgment. Its clear that rox will take a second look at him during the offseason, lets see the difference before making any deduction.
It doesn't hurt to give him a look in summer camp. If he is ok there sign him to the league minimum and see if he shows the work ethic to get better. Low risk, possible high reward. This is the team that gave Steve Francis two years to show something, low risk; high reward. That is Morey to a tee.
Couldn't agree anymore. Gerald is a very, very flawed player, but he can be a very good player in the right situation. There's no doubt that he needed some sort of wake up call, because from everything I've heard Gerald thought he'd been putting in plenty of work. A lot of people cite Gerald's work ethic and compare it to that of a Stromile Swift, but there is a distinct difference between a guy who doesn't want to work, and a guy who doesn't understand how hard he needs to work. Gerald is/was the latter...as was JR Smith during his time in New Orleans. I'm hopeful that being benched, traded, then cut has woken Gerald up in that regard, because I know he desperately wants to be a great player, and the biggest obstacle in his way has been his lack of understanding of what it takes to reach that level. Green's 2nd year in Boston was pretty productive, particularly scoring the ball. It rivaled the second years of guys like Rip Hamilton, Reggie Miller, Glenn Rice, Dale Ellis, Allan Houston etc. He got stuck behind players who Minnesota had more invested in (McCants/Brewer), lost confidence in his game, and quickly found himself in a hole that seemed impossible to climb out of. Green can shoot from any where on the court, whether it be a set shot or coming off of screens. His midrange game is solid, not nearly as bad as people seem to think, but what's hurt him the most in that regard is he's not particularly adept at pulling up off the dribble. He can play decent man to man defense on guys who can't overpower/out quick him (the best defense I've ever seen him play was against Kobe....the worst was against Jamaal Crawford). He can rebound when he wants to (a good coach would be all over him in that regard and chew him out every time he isn't near the glass for a rebound), and he generally makes sound decisions passing the ball (most of his turnovers come from his poor handle). To put things in perspective, basically every criticism Green has received throughout his career was once cast upon JR Smith. At basically the same time in his career, after going through a similar set of circumstances (Smith was traded by the Bulls to Denver for a 2nd round pick, not far off from being cut), Smith turned his career around in Denver and has become a very valuable member of their offense. Green can do the same in the right situation, he simply needs to wake up. Hopefully being cut helped him do that.
Green needs to spend more time with Lucas and play all the Fonde games. Then I think if our roster is loaded up early on, send him to the D-leagues for seasoning. Sign him for cheap why not? Then as the season progresses and we get some injuries, (dont we always?) Then bring Green up from the D-Leagues. By then he might be ready to contribute in a meaningful way. It's better than leaving him sitting at the end of the bench with zero minutes.
Also didn't help Gomes and Smith (they'll be free agents) were players the T-wolves had targeted to keep straight away. This meant no minutes at 3 as well. Minnesota knew they couldn't keep everyone happy with playing time. They could've easily given Green 10 minutes a night but less minutes for Gomes or Smith and they might not want to come back. It's not like they were winning anyway.
