Cavs Sign Jeff Green
2017-07-07
The Cleveland Cavaliers added another forward to their roster today when they signed veteran Jeff Green to a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum of $2.3 million. Green’s signing was first reported by Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today, and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst was first with the terms of the deal.
Cavs have reached a deal with free-agent forward Jeff Green, I'm told.
— Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) July 7, 2017
Green, who will turn 31 near the end of August, spent last season with the Orlando Magic shooting career-lows from both the field (39.4%) and from beyond the arc (27.5%). While Green has never been a favorite of analytics, and his teams regularly perform worse with him on the bench, some of his struggles last season can be attributed to playing on a Magic team whose roster had many redundant and ill-fitting parts. While he is known for his inconsistency, Green has typically played at the level of a solid backup for the majority of his career, and on a Cavaliers team where his role will be simplified, he should be able to get back to that relatively modest level of play.
Green, who has also played for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, and Los Angeles Clippers, had his best season with Boston in 2013-2014, when he averaged 16.9 points and 4.6 rebounds while starting all 82 regular season games at small forward for the Celtics. More importantly, he spent the prior season-and-a-half with Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, who was an assistant coach for the Celtics from 2009-2013. Lue may have a higher comfort level with Green than he did with Derrick Williams, and his presence may help Lue rest Richard Jefferson more during the regular season. At the very least, it’s nice to hear the LeBron James had conversations with Green prior to him signing with the Cavaliers.
LeBron James had active conversations with Jeff Green before decision to sign with Cavs, sources said.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) July 8, 2017
If nothing else, James probably has faith in Green due to this.
Jeff Green isn’t the type of player to get extremely excited about. There’s no proof he can help against the Warriors, and he’s not the defensive stopper the Cavs need. His inconsistency will also likely drive Cavalier fans crazy at times. Despite that, he’s likely an upgrade over Williams—who seems unlikely to return now—and is still in his athletic prime. Jeff Green for the minimum is a lot different than Jeff Green for $15 million a year. If he can help the Cavaliers keep the minutes down for Jefferson and James in the regular season, then he will have been well worth the money.
Nate needs to calm down. Lue had the guy up close & personal for the best year of his career. He isn’t a stand at the line & knock down shots guy. Nor is Osman. Hopefully we institute some more motion offense or stuff thru Love at the high post. RJ, Green, Osman, Love, TT, and James would excel in it.
Yep. Also our offense
If we can get Thabo, then the off season gets a lot better. Just don’t think Green or Calderone move the needle at all. Resigning Korver at a fair salary was a good and necessary move too given the Cavs limited choices due to the cap/luxury tax.
It seems the Cavs don’t have too many good options if they are settling for this guy. At this point I just expect the same roster.
Nates melting down.
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/883715692532465669
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/883714946038722560
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/883503603398328320
Jamal Crawford would play for the Cavaliers if they offer him the full $5.2 million they can pay to any free agent, sources told cleveland.com.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2017/07/jamal_crawford_is_clevelands_t.html
**** NO!
Agree there. Garbage on a contender at this point in his career.
I am super excited he isn’t Haslem or Crawford. Lets get Cedi signed so we know what we have left on the MLE.
Bingo. It’s not another one if LeBron’s washed buddies, and he’s under 35. To the Cavs he’s not a top draft pick, or a guy you traded assets for, or are paying him $15 million a season. He’s a vet minimum. If he outperforms that, it’s a great signing.
He will have a ton of space here. While I don’t love the signing, I don’t hate it either. He is not a 3PT shooter or a great defender. Pretty good athlete. He and Lue have a history.
Skal Labisseire looks like a different player. Josh Jackson also looking like the real deal… made a couple of tough buckets.
Skal came on big time end of last year. Hope he’s the real deal, Kings fans deserve some breaks. Jackson was my favorite in the draft. He’s basically made to destroy the summer league, though. We’ll have a better idea when he plays real games.
That Kings draft with Fox, Jackson, Giles, and Mason is very interesting….. they could be a West Coast League Pass watch.
Really up to Giles whether it was a good draft for them or not. If he can put
his injuries behind him, he is a streal. If not, may be waste of a pick.
Absolutely agree…. he really is the key. Supposedly his offensive game was awesome before all the knee injuries. Fox is a legit starting PG, Mason looks like a decent backup, and Jackson looks like he’ll be a solid 3 and D guy.
Jackson seemed like lowest floor/one of the highest ceilings to me.
Very much agree… and personally would’ve bet the former rather than the latter. But he’s a much better shooter than advertised IMO… took him time to get comfortable, but then just started balling.
Harrison Ford didn’t become Hans Solo until he was 35. For the vet minimum I’m down with the signing. At the very least he takes up a roster spot that Haslem could. No reason to be upset by him being added.
Luc mbah a moute “sky walker” would be a great counter punch to this move.
Dang… this Fox kid from Kentucky is the truth…. I think I like him better than Fultz.
It’s summer league, but Ball looks like fricken garbage.
Ball was really bad…. there have been a ton of great rookie performances… and Ball’s was on the exact opposite end of that spectrum LOL! He can’t score…. that’s his problem.
I think Ball will be good eventually, but I don’t expect him to to be very good right off. Much like Russell. I think maybe year three, if he’s going to be good.
I’m spooked… I’m most concerned about that awful shooting stroke as well as his ability to finish at the rim. You’re probably right in that it’ll all be good soon as he turns drinking age… but if all he’s bringing to the table is his vision… well that was the exact same hype DeAngelo Russell had.
It looks ugly, but u can’t argue with results when he shot from 25+ in college. I see more potential for him as a Kidd like playmaker who will make near every open 3. One summer league game means nada.
The problem with the Kidd comparison in my mind is that Kidd was a great defender… Ball is supposedly anything but.
Ball definitely shot well from 3 last year… but his FT % wasn’t good and supposedly it’s a better indicator of NBA 3pt success… granted, the guy who did the stats behind it has Ball projected to be a decent 3pt shooter (proj. 37%).
Sure, one summer league game means nothing. But given that’s the subject at hand, what I witnessed was a guy who stinks at shooting open jumpers or finishing relatively easy layups LOL.
Ball was a very good open space/help defender in college. He also has the physical tools and athletic ability to lock down pgs and thinner sgs at the NBA level. Again, one summer league game. I still think this top 10 draft class will have 5 all stars.
I definitely agree with you there…. early impressions are that this draft class was absolutely stacked.
If people watched 2002 summer league, you will remember, LBJ looked just ok in summer league too. In fact it was one of the reasons his rookie year was such a surprise. Not that he was an all star caliber player as a rookie, but no one expected him to be as good as he was that soon.
He’s gonna stink, and I couldn’t be happier. This will go down as one of the all time dumbest draft picks. LA will be brutally impatient after waiting for a “superstar,” and the guys they passed on will make people skewer him. He won’t be able to take the pressure and he’ll end up an Evan Turner type somewhere else,cept with a worse shot. Meanwhile people will look back and wonder why the eff so many people passed on fox.
Ridiculous nonsense at this point. After one summer league game, that is an objectively dumb argument. His family is insufferable. The player himself has potential. Evan Turner could never shoot like that, even in college. You ever even watch Turner at OSU? Probably not if you are saying that. Nor did he have the range, or the playmaking ability. Ball compared statistically passing wise to Chris Paul at Georgetown in his last two seasons. He could turn out worse than Turner, but that would be a massive surprise based off his production, position, and physical profile. Will he be a… Read more »
I’m not making the argument based on summer league. I didn’t even watch. I’m a three strikes guy: strike one, can’t shoot. Remember, this is a league where guys with perfect form Struggle. Strike two: Lavar has put a target on his back. Strike three: expectations are way too high.
2 and 3 are 100% true. 1 is very hard for me to buy based off his college performance, both the eye test and statistics. A lot of guys that have perfect form, such as Joe Harris, Luke Jackson, Trajan Langdon, and off the cavs, even Reddick prior to LA, and many other cavs “shooters,” never took a shot beyond 23 feet in college. Form means nothing. If you think it does, talk to Peja Stojakovic and Steph Curry. A lot of those other guys maybe pulled up or dribbled twice in their entire college careers before shooting in college.… Read more »
Jeff Green is a human white flag…
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j371/The_Random_Red/Awesome%20GIFs/tumblr_inline_mo4yek6VHI1qz4rgp_zpse648c6bb.gif
Ouch. C’mon, as one of the more optimistic writers I expect a more positive outlook. I am objective as hell when it comes to the Cavs moves. Look, I don’t like Gilbert as a manager or guy making bball decisions, but Green to Williams as a replacement is more or less a wash. D Will can’t physically guard 3s. Green can when he tries.
Nuff said… and this was on a terrible Magic team…
http://hoopshabit.com/2017/04/05/orlando-magic-thanks-jeff-green/
Damning article, but fair. Green sucks. Worth a flyer at the min, though.
So did Derrick Williams until coming to the Cavs. See above.
It was a bad year. No doubt. Maybe, I am grasping at straws. I do know that Green is more mobile than Williams.
Here is the absolute trump card in this. Look at Derrick Williams offensive numbers with the heat last year before coming to the Cavs. 39.4 % fg and 20.0% 3pt in the exact same # of games played (25) and an almost exact same # of mpg (15.1 heat to 17.1 Cavs) for both teams. It is reasonable to expect an uptick for Green too. After all, Frye was awful with Orlando too.
I’ll offer some unsubstantiated optimism: sounds a little like a JR Smith situation to me. Let’s hope he exceeds our expectations.
Can’t say I love or hate this move. Encouraging to see LeBron be allegedly recruiting again.
KCP is a pipe dream but I’d love to see it too.
Buddy Hield looking damn good…. thought the Wolves should’ve drafted him way back when.
Still would love to know what Derrrick Williams did or didn’t do to get some consideration for minutes this/next year…50% from the field, 40% from three-point range, and seemed to be one of the more engaged/active Cleveland defenders during the regular season…this signing hopefully doesn’t mean Cedi’s arrival will be another year away…
ANY CHANCE OF GETTING KCP ……DO NOT ( REPEAT ) DO NOT TRADE JEDI FOR CRAWFORD ….. AND YES YOU CAN THANK BALL’S OL MAN FOR PUTTING A BIG BULLSEYE ON HIS JERSEY
No chance. Lakers have already offered a balloon 1-yr deal and Nets will max him out.
I wish, but no.
We can dream. Would become a starter.
Jeez, I don’t know what Ball is doing. He’s going to get destroyed his first year.
Ball does not look too good. Needs to work on his body and defense. Shot also very shaky.
Meh. He seems worse than RJ and Derrick Williams on all dimensions. Don’t see how he gets any minutes. Must be more of a cultural fit. Apparently Lue is very close to him.
I’m in between…. probably better than RJ, but not sure about Williams. But if LBJ and Lue are on-board… who am I to question LOL.
Williams was arguably better last season, but Green has been better over the course of their careers. Considering the role and how terrible Williams was with the Heat, I think it’s at least a lateral move to a player Lue trusts more.
Green is more mobile laterally when he tries on that end, for whatever that is worth.
Good signing for the min, but, as you say, nothing to get too excited about. A playable body in the regular season.