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Houston Rockets: Gerald Green’s role with the team could expand

By Brian K. Patterson

CHICAGO, IL - JANUARY 08: Gerald Green
CHICAGO, IL - JANUARY 08: Gerald Green /
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The Houston Rockets have arrived at free agency and they’ve wasted no time in trying to get some deals in the early goings.  Gerald Green will be returning to the team but what about his role?  Let’s delve into it.

Houston Rockets fans — we’re at the heels of free agency and it’s certainly going to be interesting to see how the rest of this script plays out now that a few dominoes have fell in the process of bringing most of this team back together.

As you know, the first one was the one of Chris Paul, who agreed to a four-year, $160 million deal that is at max-level with the Houston Rockets.  Then the word was out on Trevor Ariza, who will not be returning to the team as he has accepted a one-year, $15 million deal from the Phoenix Suns.

Both deals struck aren’t too surprising considering that Paul reportedly wanted the max to stay with the Houston Rockets and that Ariza was seeking one more huge payday as his career steers its compass heading for final approach before retirement.

According to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, the Houston Rockets were able to come to an agreement on a one-year deal with swing man Gerald Green:

This offer is right in line with the veteran’s minimum with players of 10 or more seasons of experience.  Green just completed his 11th season so his money is right where it would need to be.  The beauty of this contract is that with the current version of the collective bargaining agreement, the cap charge will only be $1.51 million while the NBA picks up the rest of the $900K or so tab.

This language was installed to promote the retention of seasoned players in favor of younger, more inexperienced ones for less money.  With this team likely to go well past the $123 million luxury tax line this season to keep it together, every dollar counts and with Green it won’t be that much.

But let’s talk about his role.  This past season, we saw him fill a lot of time at two-guard spot, giving James Harden and Eric Gordon a break when the situation would warrant.  He’d also do so for Ariza as well as Luc Mbah a Moute but not as often.

Depending on who’s available out on the market at small forward, Green’s role may have to increase as he goes into his 12th season in the NBA.  With the departure of Ariza, there is a huge void to fill in his stead and finding a guy like Ariza will be difficult to near impossible.

Having a “three-and-D” guy on your roster is a blessing as that’s what the entire Golden State

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Warriors team is comprised of and now that’s missing with Ariza no longer here.  I wouldn’t necessarily say that Green is that guy but I think one can certainly get considerable production out of him if needed.

All of the good small forwards like Joe Harris, Rudy Gay and Will Barton are off the board but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a name that keeps popping up and he’s still available.  My fellow House of Houston Co-Expert Tyler Mock wrote about this so you definitely need to take a look at his work.  Mbah a Moute is certainly an option but with his health concerns, you wonder about his availability.

If he can play defense on a consistent basis and ensure that his shot selection is on point, I think he’d be a nice fit in a upgraded role with the Houston Rockets.  In a worst-case scenario, the team may have to look at starting him if we can’t bring in a guy like Caldwell-Pope.

His defensive rating for 2017-18 was 102.7 which puts him right in line with San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (102.3).  His defensive win shares were .033 this season, that’s far up from .013 in 2016-17, demonstrating that he’s contributing more to the team’s wins with his defense.  His DWS are in line with teammate Clint Capela (.035).

Green has morphed into a three-point shooter and is now so much more than the one-dimensional, high-flying, human highlight reel back in his earlier days of his career.  He shot at a 36.9 percent clip last season from behind-the-arc, averaging 2.7 makes and 7.3 attempts to which that’s considered high-volume, a requirement in Mike D’Antoni‘s system.

Can he handle the workload for this upcoming season?  I’m positive that he can but I think the team needs to explore other options before giving the keys to the three-spot to Green.  If it were to happen, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either.

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But we’ll have to see.  I’m just glad he’s back and that he emanated his loyalty to the hometown team that believed in him when nobody else did.  It’s GO TIME Gerald.

Green, 32, averaged 12.1 points and 3.2 rebounds with a shooting line of .407/.369/.850 through 41 games — two starts — in 2017-18.

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