Danny Green's future projection?

Kabookalu · Post #1 » by **Kabookalu** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:48 pm

I don't think Green got his due credit because all of the spotlight was on Kawhi Leonard, deservedly so.

But he absolutely emasculated Wade defensively.

I know Wade is done but Wade made great defenders in Stephenson and George look like poo just the series before.

And on offense he showed off more of an all around game that I'm not accustomed to seeing from him, like all the drives he had in game 4. If he can develop quicker decision making in terms of recognizing when to drive and when to pull up for 3 I think he could become as good as Klay Thompson which would make him at the very least a top 10 shooting guard.

Wanted to see what Spurs fans thought. Am I jumping the gun on that last statement?

Post #2 » by **Nolan** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:47 pm

I think he's about as good as he's going to get. He's one of the best all around man defenders in the league and a lights out shooter. Unless he can make some very serious strides with his ball handling and finishing and I can't ever see him becoming a top 10 SG.

Phreak50 · Post #3 » by **Phreak50** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:51 pm

Agree with Nolan. But... would love to see him improve his dribbling and be able to put it on the floor, keep the D even more honest.

Post #4 » by **Nolan** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:58 pm

Phreak50 wrote:Agree with Nolan. But... would love to see him improve his dribbling and be able to put it on the floor, keep the D even more honest.

What he really needs to learn is that Ray Allen side step.

co_laper · Post #5 » by **co_laper** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 8:15 pm

Choker wrote:I don't think Green got his due credit because all of the spotlight was on Kawhi Leonard, deservedly so.

But he absolutely emasculated Wade defensively.

I know Wade is done but Wade made great defenders in Stephenson and George look like poo just the series before.

And on offense he showed off more of an all around game that I'm not accustomed to seeing from him, like all the drives he had in game 4. If he can develop quicker decision making in terms of recognizing when to drive and when to pull up for 3 I think he could become as good as Klay Thompson which would make him at the very least a top 10 shooting guard.

Wanted to see what Spurs fans thought. Am I jumping the gun on that last statement?

I don't know about Stephenson, but Paul George guarded LeBron a lot.

Anyways, what I know from Danny is that he's best guarding quick/speed guys. He's not good at guarding "strong/explosive" types. Defensively, he and Kawhi complements each other perfectly because Kawhi is better at stronger/explosive types. Like for example, Kawhi fares better againts Lebron/Melo type or Russell Westbrook type while Danny usually get asked to defend speedier player such as Stephen Curry, Nash, Paul, etc. But Danny Green is a very good perimeter defender. I really think that part of his game is going unnoticed. If I have to choose one thing he does best, well.. it's not his defense. Obviously that's his 3 point shooting, but his defense will be second though..

Offensively, I really can't see him being more than a spot up 3 point shooter as he is now. The Finals really confuses some people on what they think Danny is.

I'm gonna judge Danny by what he's shown for the entire season. Not by what he did in NBA Finals.

Danny does not have "drives" in his game. Like I mention before in a different thread, there's about 3 things that USUALLY happens when Danny starts putting the ball on the floor.
1. The most common one is a missed shot that comes from either a floater or a midrange jumper. He doesn't have that explosiveness to go hard to the rim. When he puts the ball on the floor, he's looking for either a midrange jumper or if he's close enough to the rim, a floater. Both of which he's really not good at yet. Don't let the Finals fool you.

2. He gets stripped cleanly. Basically, he doesn't protect the ball well when he puts the ball on the floor. You can even go watch the shots that he made in the Finals and he shows the ball out there for players to slap and a lot of times, perhaps because he doesn't take it to the rim aggresively, he'll get no foul call even if he got hit on the arm.

3. He passes the ball mid-air and results in a turnover, likely a fastbreak. It's safe to say that Danny is one of our worst passers on the team. That's not a question.

What he did in the Finals surprises me as much as anyone. It's a whole bunch of "no no no.. yes yes yes" moments.

Offensively right now there's a lot he must improve. He can come off screens, but it has to be a 3 pointer for him. His midrange game is nonexistent. He doesn't really know how to come off screens yet on a curl a la Reggie/Kmart/Ray Allen. He usually gets a screen and runs straight to the 3 point line and that's where he's good.

I don't feel adding a dribble is the most important thing right now for Danny though. He's so bad in that area, I think it'll take him too many years to actually be good enough to do something with it. I'd rather focus on things he has the potential to do and right now I just think that he needs to become a more diverse shooter. Being able to shoot from deep, midrange, and learning how to use screens better to get him open a la reggie/ray. He's got the Reggie/Ray 3 point off screens perfectly. Now learn the other stuffs.

Kabookalu · Post #6 » by **Kabookalu** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:41 am

I guess I was just living in the moment, but I was really impressed with his footwork driving to the basket. Not like I expected him to be a demon that lives in the paint, but he showed polish in that part of his game and it left a great impression on me.

Post #7 » by **Nolan** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:13 am

Choker wrote:I guess I was just living in the moment, but I was really impressed with his footwork driving to the basket. Not like I expected him to be a demon that lives in the paint, but he showed polish in that part of his game and it left a great impression on me.

Ya I was impressed as well, acutally more surprised than than impressed. He's normally absolutely awful at going to the basket and as nice as it was to see him going to the rim strong I doubt he'll keep it up, but who knows.

Baller2014 · Post #8 » by **Baller2014** » Sun Jun 22, 2014 8:41 am

Like people have said, he's not going to change much. If he does undergo huge growth as a player, I hope it's after we've given him a new, cheap contract.

Boarder Patrol · Post #9 » by **Boarder Patrol** » Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:16 am

I think he'll make an improvement in his driving game, but more or less he stays an elite 3/D guy which is all SAS really needs.

co_laper · Post #10 » by **co_laper** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:15 am

Choker wrote:I guess I was just living in the moment, but I was really impressed with his footwork driving to the basket. Not like I expected him to be a demon that lives in the paint, but he showed polish in that part of his game and it left a great impression on me.

One thing that I notice though (I have the same problem because in the playground, I'm a shooter) is that when Danny puts the ball on the floor, his body is too straight up. For me, that's because we're looking for the midrange jumper instead of taking it straight to the rim. So because I'm looking at about 1 or 2 dribble pull up, I'm lining up my body to shoot a jumpshot instead of going low and take an extra dribble to get to the rim. This could be his problem IMO. I think you see the same thing with Ray Allen too because most of the time, when he starts dribbling, he's looking for the midrange jumper.

This is one thing I hope he works on this summer. Teams are trying to run him off the 3 point line. They know already he's a shooter. But when he shoots midrange, a lot of times it's short. And he NEVER takes it to the rim strong.. Plus, he's just way too skinny.. I think asking him to be a better midrange shooter is more realistic than asking him to start becoming a slasher.

Kabookalu · Post #11 » by **Kabookalu** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:00 am

I agree with your post, but there was one drive that took me the most by surprise:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZ_Mv5s3O4[/youtube]

It was at the 1:04. If it wasn't for that play I wouldn't have ever made this topic, but the ability to get to the rim as quick as he did is no easy feat at all in the NBA with just one dribble. DeRozan is one of the best at getting to the bucket and I've never seen him get there as quickly as Green did in that one play, and again off of one dribble.

His other drives didn't strike me as special, just taking what the defense was giving him who played him for his shot and took advantage by driving it to the bucket.

That one play above, that was impressive.

Although it could entirely be just all the stars aligned for him in that one play, not to mention he sort of traveled lol

Post #12 » by **Nolan** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 11:56 am

Choker wrote:I agree with your post, but there was one drive that took me the most by surprise:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZ_Mv5s3O4[/youtube]

It was at the 1:04. If it wasn't for that play I wouldn't have ever made this topic, but the ability to get to the rim as quick as he did is no easy feat at all in the NBA with just one dribble. DeRozan is one of the best at getting to the bucket and I've never seen him get there as quickly as Green did in that one play, and again off of one dribble.

His other drives didn't strike me as special, just taking what the defense was giving him who played him for his shot and took advantage by driving it to the bucket.

That one play above, that was impressive.

Although it could entirely be just all the stars aligned for him in that one play, not to mention he sort of traveled lol

Take from a guy that's watched a lot of failed Danny Green drives that was just one flukey play for him.

UDRIH14 · Post #13 » by **UDRIH14** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 6:37 am

danny green needs to improve his inside game especially finishing around the rim....

so far last season we seen him have improved his midrange game...

if he continues to improve, lol contract year coming up for him isnt it? how fast his recently signed 3yr contract is expiring..time flies quick when u fail and win a championship the next season

co_laper · Post #14 » by **co_laper** » Tue Jul 8, 2014 6:32 am

Yeah, and a lot of our guys are underpaid.

It'll be interesting in a few years how we keep them and still remain a deep team. We can't expect everyone to be underpaid. Splitter and Diaw is the two examples that are now getting paid. Kawhi is going to get something near the max. And then we still have Parker. Danny will get 6 mil a year probably.

How will we field a deep 10 man roster once guys need to get paid.

Baller2014 · Post #15 » by **Baller2014** » Tue Jul 8, 2014 8:19 am

The Spurs seem to do a good job underpaying everyone somehow. Are Splitter and Diaw really overpaid? Look around the NBA at contracts handed out lately, I'm not at all convinced they weren't fair value or better. Danny is a specialist, we don't need him to be more than that really, anything else is gravy. Even if he does command 4-6 per year on a 5 year deal, that's easily affordable for the Spurs.

co_laper · Post #16 » by **co_laper** » Tue Jul 8, 2014 5:33 pm

Baller2014 wrote:The Spurs seem to do a good job underpaying everyone somehow. Are Splitter and Diaw really overpaid? Look around the NBA at contracts handed out lately, I'm not at all convinced they weren't fair value or better. Danny is a specialist, we don't need him to be more than that really, anything else is gravy. Even if he does command 4-6 per year on a 5 year deal, that's easily affordable for the Spurs.

What I'm saying it's how about down the road when everybody gets paid their market value. We can't have 10 guys making atleast MLE money. We wouldn't be able to afford it.

And I'd say that it's only lately that we got role players for cheap and that's mostly because these guys were undrafted FAs or second rounders or still on their rookie contracts. Remember the years before Richard Jefferson? Those were the years where all we have is our big 3, and a whole bunch of one dimensional specialists. Mostly because that's kinda all we can afford to give. Duncan, Manu, and Parker combined to make about 45 mil at that time.

This is arguably our deepest team but mostly because our big three has never been as weak as it is now.

Baller2014 · Post #17 » by **Baller2014** » Tue Jul 8, 2014 11:56 pm

10 guys making MLE money would be about $51 million. That's $15 mill less than 2016's projected salary cap. The Spurs are doing a fine job of managing contracts, and I have zero concern whatever about Mills 3 year deal and Diaw's 2 year guaranteed deal. Most Spurs players get signed for discounts IMO, or excellent value. Parker and Manu signed for great value several times already.

Complaining about Richard Jefferson's contract only shows you don't know the context of it. The Spurs gave him a longer/bigger contract as part of a trade off to get him to opt out of his giant 1 year deal, and thus get out from under the luxury tax. They then managed to move RJ for relatively little cost. Great deal IMO.

law_1990 · Post #18 » by **law_1990** » Wed Jul 9, 2014 8:00 pm

Danny ain't much better than what he is really. That being said, what he is now is excellent but if you're expecting a new growth spurt i don't see it.

Everytime he drives to the basket my butthole tightens up a little because he looks so goofy doing it. IF he can brush up on that this year i think that's him done as far as skillset goes.

What he needs to NOT do are those floaters. Like, ever again.

co_laper · Post #19 » by **co_laper** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:01 pm

Baller2014 wrote:10 guys making MLE money would be about $51 million. That's $15 mill less than 2016's projected salary cap. The Spurs are doing a fine job of managing contracts, and I have zero concern whatever about Mills 3 year deal and Diaw's 2 year guaranteed deal. Most Spurs players get signed for discounts IMO, or excellent value. Parker and Manu signed for great value several times already.

Complaining about Richard Jefferson's contract only shows you don't know the context of it. The Spurs gave him a longer/bigger contract as part of a trade off to get him to opt out of his giant 1 year deal, and thus get out from under the luxury tax. They then managed to move RJ for relatively little cost. Great deal IMO.

Yes, but the starters on average doesn't make MLE. Kawhi will be making the max. Splitter will be making 9 mil. Parker at 10-12 mil.

I just think the day will come when we go full circle to the days where we have our stars making star money, and we'll have little depth because there aren't any money left to really fill out the roster. Just like when we have the big 3 and a whole bunch of specialists. We're lucky that back then one of our specialists was super cheap and an all-NBA defender.

co_laper · Post #20 » by **co_laper** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:01 pm

law_1990 wrote:Danny ain't much better than what he is really. That being said, what he is now is excellent but if you're expecting a new growth spurt i don't see it.

Everytime he drives to the basket my butthole tightens up a little because he looks so goofy doing it. IF he can brush up on that this year i think that's him done as far as skillset goes.

What he needs to NOT do are those floaters. Like, ever again.

Interesting...

Mine tightens up when I read that..