I know it seems like last year, but only a couple months ago he was really shooting well. He was .430 from behind the arc in November, which is really good. If he gets anywhere close to that again then he will be a huge asset come playoffs, giving us another outside threat to take the pressure off James and Paul.
thought nick young was a no defense chucker even MDA admits he needs to play 10 guys its not only Pops, its Kerr, Stevens, Casey, Lue
Well it's not ideal . I'd rather him get some minutes every game .... But I think if the game is close MDA won't do it . But at the very least , I'd like to see him used in this regard
D'Antoni has shown a lot of willingness to play Green when any player is out hurt. IIRC, last night was our first game with our entire roster healthy. It's not surprising that MDA would take that chance to play the rotation he'd hoped to play all year long. But 9 guys don't just stay healthy all year or through the playoffs. It only takes one injury for Green to contribute (that is not KJ McDaniels like at ALL and it's not like Bobby Brown or any other bench-warmer). Green is our first guy to join the rotation when we have any injury at all. And, knock wood (I just did) we will stay entirely healthy but we won't stay entirely healthy. And any time we're not Green will get his. If one is insistent that Green get minutes when all players are healthy, I'd just ask who you want to take the minutes away from. I value Green immensely but I don't see playing him at expense of regular minutes from anyone but Anderson and we need Anderson to shoot his way into being a threat that needs to be covered and can't be doubled off of. So I don't see that either. As I said before I think it would be great to get Green 5-10 minutes each night just to see if he's on a great shooting streak. If he is, I expect he would get more minutes on a given night at the expense of someone that's really struggling. But we didn't have anyone like that last night. Yeah, Gordon missed all threes but that doesn't mean you take Gordon out because he will shoot his way out and, more importantly, he got his on two-pointers. I love what Green has brought to the Rockets. I just don't freak out when he's not used on the first night we have a fully healthy rotation. I expect he will have many opportunities and will work his way into our rotation if he can keep up his play from the last bout of injuries. I admit to wondering why he wasn't out there last night and I did question it. But I can't question anything about the last three games given the results. Those were very hard games and we won each of them. I don't much feel like I need to tell MDA how he can do his job better.
If we didn't have Anderson and didn't need him to play himself out of his funk so he would have any trade value at all or his contract would be moveable at all, I would prefer Green starting at 3 and Ariza at 4 and I'd bury Anderson. But that would really harm us when trying to improve the team as finding a taker for Anderson is vital to any upgrades we might want to make between now and next season. If Anderson wasn't an issue, I'd be much more in favor of playing Green, but Anderson has been contributing in ways Green can't (can Green pull down 13 boards in any game? can he defend bigs?) and has been improved on defense this year. I think it's vital to this year and next that we allow Anderson to play his way into having SOME positive value to another team. And a forward rotation of Ariza, Green, Mbah a Moute, and PJ Tucker is not quite enough. It would make us thin and we would crater with injuries to any of the four so we need to make Anderson as much a baller as we can this year I think.
This is a thin rotation, prone to great drop off with any injuries: Paul/Harden Harden/Gordon/Green Green/Luc/Gordon Ariza/Tucker/Anderson Capela/Nene/Black/Anderson This is a very deep rotation, with injury insurance: Paul/Harden Harden/Gordon/Green Ariza/Luc/Green Anderson/Tucker/Ariza Capela/Nene/Black/Anderson In the second lineup Green only sees minutes when we have an injury to a swingman, which we commonly do. If Green is going to get minutes over Ariza or Mbah a Moute though, I think he still has a lot to prove on defense before he has any hope of beating either out for minutes at the 3. And I don't see any case where he should take minutes from our three guards unless one is hurt or in foul trouble. I understand why people are bent out of shape after Green contributed so well when needed. But I see this is as a great thing. Having too many good players is a great problem to have. It encourages competition within the roster, which is always good. And Green solves a HUGE problem we had which was how to get through injuries. And if he continues to distinguish himself in practice I don't see any way MDA doesn't throw him a bone in games even when we're healthy. MDA wants to win as badly as you do (no matter who you are) or maybe more badly. He has more than earned my trust that he will do the right thing. I think any knock on him as "stubborn" though is really unfair. He reinvented the game with a bold new way of playing with the Suns. No stubborn coach could have done that.
Love your posts but I couldn't disagree more. I almost always agree with you but I just think you're wrong on this one. Troy and KJ could only get minutes in a total emergency or trash time. MDA has already shown he's far more committed to Green than either of those other players.
IM really not sure why you guys would be expecting anything different? D’Antoni has always had 8-9 man rotations and honestly I think that’s the way it should be. You want your best guys in there as long as possible and you want to give the guys that do come off the bench the chance to get real meaningful minutes so they can get in a groove. If you have 5 guys coming off the bench for like 10 minutes a game they aren’t really given a chance to make a real impact or get into any rhythm anyway.
I would love to be wrong here, but MDA’s postgame statement was pretty bleak for his outlook. Tomorrow against Dallas we will most likely get our answer, but I’m not very hopeful it will be anything beyond him getting in once the game is already decided
KJ got about 20mpg at the beginning of last season ( 7 games ) .... Then hit pine . I would classify the situations in which Green and KJ played to be about the same . Both cases , players were injured and they played because they had to. We haven't seen Green play in a non-injury situation yet.
As poor as EG has shot he's still normaly pretty good in +/- when all is said and done. MDA is making the right moves here. Now if we're getting blowouts and he's not putting Green in I would be concerned.
Glad to see a voice of reason in the midst of all this whiny nonsense. People are actually complaining about a 9 man rotation...and upset that Gerald Green didn't get minutes in a game that was a defensive struggle that went down to the final minutes. I swear CF will whine about anything.
Criticize the rotation or make recommendations. Those comments are fine. Calling MDA a “fool” and the other dumb comments I read aren’t.
even MDA admits it's the right thing to do nothing wrong calling him out on not being able to do the right thing
Green is a veteran who signed here willingly knowing that we have a deep guard rotation. This is probably one of his last contracts in the NBA; he likely came here to go for a ring instead of signing with a fringe playoff team out East for minutes. He also hasn't been here super long, so it's a bit disingenuous to say he won't get played at all now that everyone is injured.
