Since being called up from the D-League during All-Star Weekend, Gerald Green has made his share of noise with the New Jersey Nets. He debuted on the 28th of February with a solid 10-point performance against the Mavericks, and he’s since windmilled an alley-oop and dropped 26 twice. Most impressively, the 26-year-old pogo stick has shown a certain degree of consistency that he’d never displayed against NBA competition to this point in his career. Between March 10th and March 17th, Gerald was able to put together a string of five consecutive double-figure outings… something he’d only done twice before, way back in 2007. Additionally, he’s shooting an impressive 50% from the floor and 35% from long range over 14 total games.
Unfortunately, Green has been forced to take a back seat to the newly acquired Gerald Wallace. He’s already been signed for the remainder of the season and he’s still making his presence felt in limited minutes, but the Wallace acquisition had to be a bit of a disappointment from his point of view, seeing as he appeared to be moving towards a spot in the starting lineup. Credit Green for taking a mature approach to the situation, though. He continues to express how appreciative he is of the opportunity the Nets have given him, and he still finds ways to contribute as well. Lately, he’s been blocking shots–a total of seven over his last four games. That ties him for 8th most amongst all players over the past week, and makes him first when only considering small forwards. For a perimeter guy who’s not exactly known for his defense (or his ability to capitalize on his freakish athleticism), that’s at least a little impressive. If nothing else, it shows that he’s out there trying to make plays that aren’t slam dunks.
Oh, and it’s probably worth mentioning that Gerald has been blocking these shots in a way that few human beings–even those human beings who happen to be professional basketball players–can. Observe, and then thank Billy King for making this man an NBA player once again, if only until April 26th.
I’m pretty confident that Gerald will be able to sign on with an NBA team for next season. There are certainly worse basketball players in the league than Gerald Green, and as fans of the NBA we should all be happy that this is being proven on a nightly basis. Every man has a limited amount of leaps left in his legs, and we’re all losing out when Gerald is forced to waste some of his in a league that isn’t the NBA.
