The 3-time Mid-Con player of the year seems to have a knack for putting on a show whenever his team is on national television, something that for Oral Roberts sake will hopefully extend to their first round matchup on Thursday with #3 seed Washington State.
The first time we saw Green this year, he registered possibly the most impressive overall performance of his phenomenal four year career, beating Kansas on the road while putting up 20 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals. He also hit 2 of his 3 attempts from behind the arc, which ended up registering for 33% of his made 3-pointers on the year. The next time Green was on TV, it was on the road against Arkansas, in a close game that got away from Oral Roberts midway through the second half. Green had 23 points, 15 rebounds and 3 steals in that game, shooting 0-1 from behind the arc. And in this last showing, Green was playing in what could have been the last game of his career, going up against Oakland in the Mid-Con Championship. He showed up in a big way for his team with 28 points and 9 rebounds, while knocking down 3 of his 5 attempts from behind the arc, accounting for another 50% of his made baskets from that range on the year.
At the end of the day, Green is an upgraded version of your classic 4-year, undersized mid-major power forward. He doesnt have great size (6-8 might be stretching it), nor is he a great athlete, but he just knows how to get the job done, to the tune of nearly 2500 points in his career. He does it with superb versatility, being able to score equally as effectively with his back to the basket as he is facing the basket. He is extremely smart and a superb passer as you may have guessed by the 8 assists he dropped on the Jayhawks earlier this year, even if he has to be a little more selfish than he would probably prefer due to his extremely important role on Oral Roberts.
In the post, Green has an unorthodox jump-hook shot that he can throw in the basket with superb touch from anywhere within a 12 foot radius around the hoop. If his man takes away that move, hell gladly go to his secondary option, his turnaround jumper, or his third, a reverse pivot move that he executes with beautiful footwork. Not particularly quick, nor explosive, he uses his body intelligently to set himself up for fakes and crafty spin-moves to give himself a chance to put the ball on the rimin which case it normally drops thanks to his terrific feel.
Facing the basket, Green is a very good ball-handler for a power forward. He likes to create mismatches and put pressure on the defense by taking his man out to the perimeter and then finding angles to make his way to the hoop off the dribble. This helps him get to the free throw line at a near-incredible rate, just under 11 times per game. That stat puts him in first place in that category amongst the 500+ NBA draft prospects in our database, and not by small margin.
As a rebounder, Green is also amongst some of the best rebounders in this draft class, pulling down 9.3 per game, despite his average size and athleticism. That tells you a lot about his great hands, timing and positioning, as well as the tenacity in which he plays in.
Defensively, its very hard to gauge him accurately, due to the fact that he just doesnt seem to do anything except keep his arms in the air in order to stay out of foul trouble. Oral Roberts needs him on the floor for as many minutes as he can handle, and getting in foul trouble or being worn down by chasing players around screens is simply not an option for them. With that said, its not hard to tell that his lateral quickness is average at best, and thats where many of the question marks about his pro potential really start to emergethe position hell hypothetically defend at the next level.
Green has the body type of a power forward, despite likely being somewhere around 6-7, and would seemingly benefit greatly by shedding 10-15 pounds before he fully engages himself in the NBA draft workout process. Improving his shooting mechanics is also a must, possessing a fairly ugly, deliberate flat-footed stroke that is just not going to fly on the wing in the NBA. Despite shooting 5/9 from 3-point range in the three games we saw of his this year, he was only 1/8 in the other 30 games we didnt, which tells us a lot more about his perimeter shooting ability.
All in all, despite his flaws, Green is the type of player a team could certainly fall in love with at some point of the draft process. His game is somewhat similar to that of
Ryan Gomes, and his intangibles appear to be just as strong. Being an undersized power forward isnt the curse it used to be a few years ago as Gomes and guys like
Craig Smith can tell you, so Green will have a chance to stick if he plays well in as many NBA settings as he can, including Portsmouth, the NBA pre-draft camp, summer league and training camp, if hes to make it that far. If he doesnt, a six figure contract in Europe awaits him at virtually anytime, as his game is absolutely tailor made to that style of play.
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