I could see the re-signing of Zeller happening, unfortunately, but Gerald Green, as well? Ahahaha, you've outdone yourself this time, Ainge. Sushi in a car? Oh boy!
Seriously, though, it looks like he's developed a nice turnaround and fadeaway jumper and another post move or two and he can come off of picks plus his athleticism, of course, but I don't think that he plays much, if any, defense. In 2012, the Pacers signed him, and with the injury to Danny Granger, Green, in theory, was supposed to be the backup for Paul George, iirc. Yeah, not so much.
After starting the first 3 games of the year, he was replaced by Sam Young, lol, who was then replaced by Lance Stephenson after, again, 3 games, and it wasn't until December that he started again for two games, and probably because Stephenson was out for those two contests. Other than that, he only started 2 more games over the rest of the season, with the last one being against the 76ers, where Vogel presumably rested George. Green then proceeded to barely play at all during the playoffs, likely because Vogel, a defensive-minded coach, simply didn't trust him on that end of the court, and especially during crunch time. Overall, when he wasn't starting, Gerald averaged 16.3 mpg, 6.1 ppg, 2.2 rpg, and 0.9 apg on .343 fg%, .291 from 3, and .848 from the line in 53 games off of the bench.
Now let's examine his season with the Heat last year. While he did start 14 games for Miami, he played 55 of them in a reserve capacity, averaging 8.5 ppg, 2.3 rpg, and 0.7 apg in 20.9 mpg, on .393 fg% (which is better than his .388 fg% as a starter), .327 from 3, and .797 from the line. What's important, though, is that once Joe Johnson signed with them, and injuries finally forced Spoelstra (again, another defensive-minded coach) to play rookie Josh Richardson, who quickly became a key cog of their team, while Green averaged just 9.9 mpg over 10 contests in March, and 17 mpg to wind things up in April, a number which was obviously skewed by his starting 2 of those 7 contests. Once again, like Vogel, Spoelstra hardly used Green in the playoffs, aside from game 3 of the conference finals, where he inexplicably used Gerald for 20:58 over Winslow(was he hurt, or something? I can't remember, although I don't think that that was the case, but I'm probably wrong, here, so feel free to correct me, lol
), who didn't even play, in that crucial contest. Not surprisingly, the Heat lost, 95-91, although the loss of Whiteside obviously had much more of an impact on that game, as well as the series, than Gerald's performance. Still, Green did not play in games 4 or 6, and only managed to get on the floor for a combined 13:29 in games 5 and 7.
My point being, if Vogel and Spoelstra didn't trust him when it mattered the most, why would Stevens, a defensive-minded coach, himself, buck the trend? This move makes absolutely no sense, imo, unless of course Green can replace James Young's hairdos, lol, if the latter is even on the team, which I really hope won't be the case. Just give Hunter those minutes, instead. I get the whole 'if he's good enough he'll earn them' thing, but this also applies to Brown, as well, and since Stevens has absolutely no interest in player development, imo, why should we believe that he'll play a rookie, 3rd pick in the draft or not, not to mention a 2nd year player to be in Hunter, over a veteran like Green? If Ainge had wanted another shooter off of the bench, he should have kept the 31st pick and taken Malcolm Brogdon, imo, who impacts the game in ways that Green simply cannot. Ugh.
Of course, he also could have looked into undrafted guys like Danuel House and Jarrod Uthoff, to name a couple, but let's not open that can of worms, lol
. Sigh.
