Numerous coaches around the league have praised the Heat‘s signing of Gerald Green to a one-year pact, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald relays. Kings coach George Karl said of Green, “Explosive guy coming off the bench. Can blow a game open. He reminds me a lot of J.R. Smith when I had J.R. in Denver. Sometimes you don’t like how he plays. Sometimes he’ll drive you a little crazy. But in the same sense, he has a power for a bench player that has All-Star talent. Now he doesn’t put it on the court every night. [But] when you have the ability to put it on the court every other game, that’s still a great weapon to have. I think [Heat coach] Erik [Spoelstra] will use him really well.”
Here’s the latest out of the Southeast Division:
- The Wizards intend to go “all in” on pursuing Kevin Durant when he becomes a free agent next Summer, which means the team needs to show Durant through its roster moves that he’ll have the best opportunity to secure an NBA title in Washington, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. “The one thing I know about my brother is he wants to win,” said Damion James, Durant’s best friend and a member of the Wizards’ summer league team. “He’ll do whatever it takes to win. Whoever gives him the best chance to win is where he’s going to end up.”
- Aaron Harrison‘s two-year deal with the Hornets will pay him $525,093 in 2015/16 and $874,636 for the 2016/17 season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
- The Wizards’ pact with Drew Gooden will see him earn approximately $3.3MM for the upcoming season and $3.5MM for the 2016/17 campaign, Pincus relays (on Twitter).
- Undrafted rookie Terran Petteway is trying to snag a training camp invite with the Hawks through his Summer League play, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution writes. “Really, I like the way these guys play,” Petteway said when asked about his decision to play Summer ball with the Hawks. “They get up and down the floor. That’s my type of basketball, right there, getting up and down the floor. They play great defense and share the ball.” As for his future, Petteway said, “They [the Hawks] said they liked my activity on the defensive end and also I can score a little bit. That’s why I’m trying to get out here and show them I can be a two-way guard and a solid guy off the bench.”
I pretty much have compared Gerald Green to JR Smith, but with worse defense. Also, JR is a slightly better shooter…for the money, that’s pretty good, especially when he knows that he is going to be more of a catch and shoot guy, and you aren’t letting him isolate
Yeah, if you can get a player whose game is a reasonable facsimile of J.R. Smith’s for the minimum salary, you do it. If he has one of his better years, the Heat have a major bargain there.
Do a healthy heat team win the division this yr over the hawks
Nylon Calculus makes a critical point that the 3 point shot involves two and often three players. The great majority (as high as 80 to 90% of 3’s are assisted and it is often the 2nd pass that finds an open man for an uncontested 3. Vince Carter made 40% of his shots behind the arc with Dallas but when Memphis stole him to spread the court, he only shot 30% from deep for lack of ball movement. LeBron drove the lane and kicked out to Chalmers in the corner who hit over 50% of his 3’s but with James gone Mario couldn’t make 30%. The thing about Green is he had his best year from deep playing with Goran Dragic in Phoenix. Guess what? They are back together in Miami and that should help Green immensely to be more consistent. Except for the rare player like Stephen Curry who can create his own 3 point shot, it is the assisted 3 that is the norm.