Has Hornets’ Josh Green found his comfort zone and turned the corner in the NBA?
Josh Green was preparing to exit the locker room, finishing up a conversation about his latest outing, when a few of his Charlotte Hornets’ teammates began badgering him.
LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and Brandon Miller lobbed playful barbs Green’s way as they recalled Green’s right-handed tomahawk throw down in the second quarter of their 128-114 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Sunday. They were giving him style points, detailing Green’s stuff like it was a dunk contest, and the fifth-year swingman soaked it all up.
“It’s good, man, it’s great,” Green said. “It’s good to be around young guys, and I think they are all competitive and they want to win. We have a great relationship. So, I think it’s great.”
Green is settling in with his new team, becoming more comfortable with each shift on the court. Statistically, he’s in the midst of his best stretch through the season’s initial four weeks, leaving his fingerprints on things on both sides of the ball.
Registering 15 points in consecutive games for the fifth time in his career, marking the first occasion he’s scored in double-digits in back-to-back outings with the Hornets, Green has discovered a rhythm of late.
Acquired from Dallas in July as part of a six-team trade that helped Klay Thompson’s free agency move from Golden State to the Mavericks, the key offseason acquisition wanted to slowly incorporate himself into the mix with the Hornets (5-8) and take time to get acclimated with his teammate’s strengths. It’s almost like he’s emerging from a cocoon and starting to spread his wings for takeoff.
“Yeah, I feel good,” Green said. “At the end of the day, like I’ve said, I didn’t want to come in here and force anything on my role on the offensive end. I trusted guys, I knew it wasn’t going to be all smooth from an offensive standpoint coming to a new team. So, (it’s) just finding where I can attack and finding where I can help others.”
‘Overall impact’
In his past two outings leading into Tuesday’s East Group A NBA Cup matchup with Brooklyn at Barclays Center, Green is averaging 15 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists, shooting 68.7% from the floor. He’s canned 11 of 16 shots, including a sparkling 5-for-6 showing beyond the 3-point arc, and been extremely aggressive at the outset.
That’s a far cry from his previous five games entering the Hornets’ matchup with Milwaukee on Saturday, when he totaled just 12 points combined. There’s little doubt Green’s increased offensive production benefits the Hornets in a variety of ways, particularly taking some of the scoring pressure off Ball.
“Yeah, it gives us a boost, gives him a boost,” coach Charles Lee said. “But I always trust that he’s going to come through whatever he’s going through on the court because he’s a worker and he cares so much. And he’s just got the right type of Hornets’ DNA and character to him.
“To me, it’s not about points with him. It’s his overall impact that he has on winning and to our whole team spirit.”
That’s evidenced by how much the Hornets’ on-court IQ improves when he’s in the lineup. Their turnover percentage dips by 3.4% percent with Green on the floor, a differential ranking in the league’s 92nd percentile according to Cleaning the Glass.
Defensively, his presence can’t be ignored. An athletic wing who’s coming off a career best season — where he averaged 8.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 made 3-pointers per game — Green’s calling card for the better part of his pro career stems from his defensive acumen. Guarding his man full court and hounding him relentlessly are two of his staples.
While others may turn up a nose to digging in on that side of the ball, instead preferring the style points often associated with excellent offensive exploits, Green’s mentality is quite the opposite. He enjoys it thoroughly.
“I take a lot of pride on the defensive end.” Green said. “I think I made some silly errors (Sunday night), though. But that will be the No. 1 thing I hang my hat on. I hate it when people score on me, and so for me I just think it’s important to be that anchor for the team on the defensive end.
“And I’m working on it, too. I need to be a talker, I need to be loud.”
Defense — and grunt work
Complacency doesn’t seem to be in Green’s makeup, and all it takes is a peek at his solid shooting behind the arc, where he ranked seventh at 51.7% heading into Monday night. He’s been extremely effective working in the corners, knocking down shots, and that also gives him room to drive to the basket when defenders close out.
Green’s 50% showing (9 of 18) on corner 3-pointers this season is actually up from the 38.6% (127-for-329) he’s posted in his NBA career, a byproduct of all those shots he hoisted off passed from Dallas superstar Luka Dončić.
“After my first year, I knew that was going to be a big piece of staying in this league, is just being able to hit down that corner three,” Green said. “I feel comfortable playing in the corners. I love playing out of the corners. It’s something I work on in the offseason, so it’s something I’m very comfortable with and I love shooting corner threes. It’s fun.
“It’s an opportunity for me to be able to create and also be able to create for my teammates, be able to get into the paint and be able to pass it out. So, I think I’ve shot a lot of threes in my summers.”
Still, for the Australian, it always comes back to two things: defense and grunt work.
“I think my first year, my first two years in the league, I realized I had to figure out something, figure out how am I going to make an impact on a team like the Mavs?” Green said. “And for that, it was defense, making energy plays and whatnot. And I didn’t mind doing that to be able to expand from that.
“So, that was the start and that’s how I originally got minutes in the NBA. And I don’t want that side to go away.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 2:24 PM.
