What if OKC gets the #1 pick?

[Big_Mac79]

The idea is fine value wise but I just don't see Orlando trading D Howard for a SF when they already have Lewis and Hedo.

I understand this
Just watching Dwight every night has me thinking he is the necessary man every lineup needs.
Pair him with a superstar and They will be unstoppable

I was thinking about the SF issue but I think they might let Hedo walk or S&T him and keep Shard at the 4

[slick_watts]

i know i'm fighting a losing battle on this board with this, but jeff green is not a 'too good to trade' kind of player, especially if he's destined to play PF full time on this team.

here is how jeff green ranked among PF's in the league:

PPG: 9th
FG%: 28th
ADJ FG%: 25th

jeff green's best attribute as a PF, his scoring, is still pretty pedestrian. his PPG is high relative to his shooting efficiency due to the amount of shots he takes and minutes he plays. taking his 3pt shooting into account, green's scoring ability is more or less consistent with what lamarcus aldridge did for portland last year, so it's a strength of his relative to the position.

RPG: 17th
RP48: 36th

jeff green is a mediocre rebounder for the PF position. he compares strongly to, oddly enough, other perimeter oriented PF's playing out of position such as rashard lewis and al harrington. al harrington plays d'antoni ball and rashard lewis has some stiff in the middle getting his back; jeff green does not have this luxury.

TO: 4th (t)

jeff green turns the ball over a lot. this is significant because most of the other PF near the top of the TO list are forwards with very high usage rates (josh smith, bosh, nowitzki, west). who dominate their team's touches. or guys like boris diaw who play some point forward. green does neither of these things and simply turns the ball over too much.

the worst part of jeff green the PF though, is his defense. jeff green cannot defend the post. he's got a short reach, he's not very strong, and he doesn't have very good technique. jeff green's PF opponents score 21.5 points per 48 minutes against him, and after about five minutes of looking at other starting PF's on 82games.com i could not find a starting PF who gave up more points to his opponent. some of this probably does have to do with the thunder's overall lack of size and strength inside, but the fact that green is statistically one of the worst starting PF defenders can't be wholly ignored.

even ignoring stats completely, unless this team gets a real difference maker at center to police the lane, jeff green is a very strong liability on the defensive end. jeff green would benefit this team much more if he were able to play and defend his natural position of SF. unfortunately, the SG pigeonholing of durant didn't work and now we are left with a player way out of position with nothing on the roster to cover for this weakness. if jeff green could be parlayed into a significant upgrade at another position (SG, C, PF), i don't see how mgmt could ignore it.

[Big_Mac79]

I agree with you Slick
Green is definitely not too good to be traded
But you have been advocating for Bosh
Bosh is a 1 year rental
If he is likely in your eyes to re-sign after next season then he is likely to sign in 2010
But we are in a good spot to wait a season to trade him
We could have massive amounts of cap to add a legit star through FA
Here are some available next offseason
LeBron, Bosh, Wade, Joe Johnson, Dirk, Yao, Amare, Roy
Lets just wait one more season and see where we are

[wiff]

I also agree that Green isn't too good to be traded but I'm not inclined to trade him just yet.

The Thunder still have another year or two before they are really "expected" to make the playoffs.

I'm going out on a limb here but say the Thunder do draft Thabeet and he shows he is a solid starter in the league. Not All-Star but he impacts the game in a positive way. Pardon me for climbing to the even thinner limb here but what if Ibaka shows that he is a borderline starter.

You can still use Green as a 6th man but give him starter type minutes. Ala Radman and Reggie Evans during the Sonics 52 win season.

I do think Thabeet is the type of center both Green and Durant would work next to best. Obviously Thabeet has to prove he can play in the league but if he can, he is the type of center the Thunder can use.

Of course Green has to accept his role as a 6th man, not sure how he will feel about that but minutes are minutes.

Me myself, I'd rather get more minutes and come off the bench than be a starter with less minutes. But that's just me. And obviously I'm not a pro athlete........... well unless you include Wiffleball.

And even if Ibaka is a complete bust Green and Durant should still pair nicely with Thabeet.

I understand I'm out on a pretty thin limb but I think it is reasonable scenario.

[Clangus]

well Im obiously in teh minority.

Green is one of "those" guys, that makes everyone else better. He does everything well. Not outstanding, but good. He is not Radman or Reggie Evans, Lamar Odom style of 6th man possibly.

Im not going to refute statistics as you can use stats to back up anything. Hell there is even a book call "how to lie with statistics".

Watching the games though I can see something great in Green and want him around. He's not even my fave Thunder player, he just has something.

Sorry I can ot be more succinct about it.

[Big_Mac79]

well Im obiously in teh minority.

Green is one of "those" guys, that makes everyone else better. He does everything well. Not outstanding, but good. He is not Radman or Reggie Evans, Lamar Odom style of 6th man possibly.

Jeff Green is a stud
I love him
But if I could find a superstar to pair with KD I would

[slick_watts]

But you have been advocating for Bosh

i would trade green in a deal for bosh, yes, but it'd be contingent on bosh signing an extension. i don't think any team would trade for an unsigned bosh unless toronto's asking price dropped through the floor.

LeBron, Bosh, Wade, Joe Johnson, Dirk, Yao, Amare, Roy

yes, 2010 has some nice free agents. reaslistically, okc is not going to see any of the top flight names sign with them. a team like new york can plan on the cap space and know they're going to get something, okc can't really do that. you really see any of the above signing with the thunder? presti's got the right idea, he's building through the draft and through trades so far, using free agency to fill the gaps. that's how you do it if you're small market (like san antonio).

I'm going out on a limb here but say the Thunder do draft Thabeet and he shows he is a solid starter in the league. Not All-Star but he impacts the game in a positive way.

it would help. are you guys comfortable having two guys (westbrook, thabeet) going through severe growing pains on the roster?

if okc drafts thabeet then the thinking is pretty obvious, that they need some kind of defensive presence in the middle regardless of other shortcomings. i'm personally not a big fan of thabeet, i think he's going to struggle to stay on the court in the nba, and by the time he figures it all out he'll likely be on another team. i could be wrong, though, and if thabeet can rebound, block shots, and body up even somewhat effectively, then it would go a long way toward mitigating jeff green's weaknesses.

Green is one of "those" guys, that makes everyone else better. He does everything well. Not outstanding, but good. He is not Radman or Reggie Evans, Lamar Odom style of 6th man possibly.

i saw maybe 50 of the 82 thunder games this year and i didn't see anything strange in jeff green's game "outside the boxscore". he doesn't make anyone better because he's not a good passer. when he was drafted there was a huge to-do about how good a passer he was, he could play the high post and maybe some point forward. green's got medicore handles, he's pretty clumsy putting the ball on the floor. reminds me a little of rashard lewis when he first came in the league.

green could be a great 6th man because he's pretty good offensively. if okc got griffin, for example, and green couldn't be traded for an upgrade at C or SG, he'd be perfect as the first F off the bench.

[wiff]

My biggest issue with trading Green for Bosh is that Bosh would have to be extended to his current max contract so he is going to be making like 17 to 21 mil a year over the course of the extension because it keeps going up by ten percent. Plus Toronto wants the #1 pick from the Thunder.

So the Thunder lose two starters (if a guy is drafted top 5 in the draft he should be starting), they lose immediate cap space, and down the road it completely handcuffs them once OKC throws out a max deal to Durant.

We all saw how hard it was for Minny to put talent around KG after he had his 20mil contract signed.

I just feel that once those two are locked up they won't be able afford to re-sign Westbrook.

I know it's not my money, but still, even owners have limits.


If Bosh signed a new contract to where he is making say 14 to 15 mil a year I'd give it a lot more consideration. But 20+ mil for Bosh is silly.

New York can afford that, but OKC is not NY.

[Clangus]

Green is one of "those" guys, that makes everyone else better. He does everything well. Not outstanding, but good. He is not Radman or Reggie Evans, Lamar Odom style of 6th man possibly.

i saw maybe 50 of the 82 thunder games this year and i didn't see anything strange in jeff green's game "outside the boxscore". he doesn't make anyone better because he's not a good passer. when he was drafted there was a huge to-do about how good a passer he was, he could play the high post and maybe some point forward. green's got medicore handles, he's pretty clumsy putting the ball on the floor. reminds me a little of rashard lewis when he first came in the league.

green could be a great 6th man because he's pretty good offensively. if okc got griffin, for example, and green couldn't be traded for an upgrade at C or SG, he'd be perfect as the first F off the bench.

HAHAHAHHA oh wait......you're serious?

I think I'll stick to leaving one line comments in this board from now on. I have such a different view of everything on here, all it does is frustrate me.
I am glad however that the IQ level here seems to be far above what some of the other teams have.

[wizkid27]

I think that Green is not necessarily a guy who "does all of the small things" like a Battier or Reggie Evans or Jeff Foster or Sefolosha, where they make a large impact on the game without getting many stats to show for it. I think Green makes an impact on the game typical of a 2nd or 3rd best player on a team (although sometimes he doesn't really show up on either end of the court), and he's got numbers to match that.

I think Green does do a lot to help the team, and doesn't have many weaknesses (he's a great all-around player), but he does get numbers that would place him in about the right place in the league, IMO. He was generally ranked (fantasy-wise) in the 70s, which would be pretty accurate given his place as the 2nd best player on a bad team.

Green is great, easily in my top 3 favorite players in the league, however I don't see a ton in his game that makes me think his stat line doesn't do his game justice.