The Dallas Mavericks were active in the offseason, adding players such as Naji Marshall and Klay Thompson to bolster a group that qualified for the NBA Finals the previous season. The Mavericks had to part with Josh Green’s and Tim Hardaway Jr.’s contracts in order to get Klay Thompson; Hardaway went to the Detroit Pistons, while Green went to the Charlotte Hornets. Although Dallas’ side of the trades was adored by all, the opposite was not as fortunate.
In a recent list of things to love and loathe about every team’s summer, Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes expressed his distaste for the Hornets’ decision to sign Green.
“Hate is a strong word here, as Josh Green has plenty of intriguing qualities,” Hughes stated. “He plays with an excessive amount of energy, is an underappreciated distributor on the move, and has a career long 37.5 clip when shooting from deep. Nevertheless, Green’s $41 million, three-year contract is, at most, questionable. His career minus-2.3 Box Plus/Minus is a fantastic example of how little most advanced analytics care about his contributions, and he’s not nearly big enough to wrangle opposing wings. However, considering that the pay in question only accounts for 9% of the Hornets’ annual limit, this is hardly a disastrous addition.”
At first, the Mavs saw Green’s contract as an opportunity to develop into a star player, but at worst, it might have been a trade chip. In his four years in Dallas, he started just 62 games, unable to crack the starting lineup.
Although Green scored 14 points in the decisive Game 5 of the NBA Finals, he never proved to be reliable enough for Jason Kidd. Though his unpredictable play won’t be missed, his effort and intensity will. Although he had shot over 38% from three in each of the previous two seasons, teams were often content to leave him open from deep because he was never perceived as a threat.
