Green entered with 4:20 left in the 1st quarter. He leaves with 5:23 left in the 2nd. He re-enters the game with 6:09 left in the 3rd before leaving with 6:03 left in the 4th. He comes back with 25.7 seconds left in the game.
Which of these options are superior to what Doc actually did?
-Leave Green in for the rest of the game and play him 18 consecutive minutes?
-Leave Green in the game and take him out only when he has obviously run out of energy? (And if you believe this, can you demonstrate that he hadn't reached that point yet?)
-Take Green out earlier with the intention of putting him back in for several minutes at the end of the game?
-Take Green out at roughly the same time, but give him 2-3 minutes rest then put him back in?
And of course there is the question of whether Green is on strict minute restriction because of the heart surgery.
Absent any evidence that he is, in fact, on a minutes restriction, I am going to operate under the assumption he isn't. He is well over a year removed from his surgery.
Even if he really can't play 30 minutes a game (which seems absurd to me), Doc should have taken him out a few minutes earlier and then brought him back for the last few in favor of Bass. Heck, he could have taken him out when he did, and still brought him back at around the 2 minute mark. It was just so obvious Bass was killing us, and Pierce needed someone else to help.
I could have sworn the whole idea coming into the season was to have KG/Green/Pierce as our end of game front-court lineup. Green has been playing more than well enough of late to deserve to be on the floor in the last few minutes. Total fail on Doc's behalf as far as managing rotations is concerned.