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Danny Green's invisible value: How the third-highest paid Laker has impacted
NBA Finals amid a shooting slump
丹尼綠看不到的價值：在投射超爛的情況下湖人的第三高薪球員如何影響總冠軍賽

Death, taxes and Danny Green shooting slumps. They are the three
inevitabilities of life, and for the "glass half full" crowd, they come with
more optimistic opposites. Death is only the end result of life. The more you
make, the more you're taxed. And Green's slumps only stick out because his
hot streaks are so blistering. Toronto's championship run was a perfect
example. Green went 4-for-23 from behind the arc in the Eastern Conference
finals... and then started the NBA Finals 11-of-22 and all was forgiven.
Green's shot comes and goes.



It hasn't in the bubble. Green is sitting at 33 percent for the postseason,
and with only one game remaining before a potential championship, it's
looking like his typical eruption isn't coming. Yet Frank Vogel hasn't taken
him out of the starting lineup even once. Neither did Nick Nurse a year ago,
or Gregg Popovich in any of his last six postseason runs in San Antonio. Some
of that is trust. Some of it is blind hope of regression. But mostly, three
of the best coaches in the NBA have all come to the same correct conclusion:
Danny Green still impacts games positively even when his shot isn't falling.



The numbers bear that out for the Lakers. They have outscored opponents by
148 points in Green's 476 playoff minutes and have been outscored by 14 in
the 436 minutes he's sat out. The obvious explanation for this is that he is
still an excellent defensive player independent of his own shooting, yet most
of this gap comes on offense. The Lakers are scoring 121.5 points per 100
possessions with Green on the floor in the postseason and 107.5 without him.
Lakers fans frustrated with his nearly-$15 million salary have run through
the entire laundry list of possible excuses for that from "he still has
gravity even when his shots aren't falling" to "he plays most of his minutes
with LeBron James and Anthony Davis" to "it's just blind shooting luck in his
lineups," but the far simpler answer here is that Green is just an enormously
intelligent basketball player.



Basketball IQ tends to be ascribed to ball-handlers. It's easy to watch Rajon
Rondo dissect a defense in pick-and-roll and marvel at his brilliance, but
the label shouldn't be so limited. Shooting, in Green's case, is the
byproduct of the dozens of little things that make him such a special role
player whether or not those shots go in. Game 4 of the NBA Finals provided a
number of worthwhile examples.



Selling the screen
LeBron is one of the NBA's preeminent switch-hunters, and Duncan Robinson has
been his prey of choice in the Finals. The method is simple: whoever Robinson
is guarding screens for LeBron, which forces Robinson to switch onto LeBron.
Miami's defense is so concerned with mitigating the damage of such a switch
that they lost track of the simplest switch-busting tactic in basketball:
slipping.



A lazy slip is a predictable slip, but nothing about Green's acting job here
is lazy. He comes from the opposite corner seemingly to screen for James, and
sells the idea of that screen to Robinson masterfully with a quick, tiny
little jump stop in front of Jimmy Butler. Robinson switches, but immediately
following that stop, he continues into the corner before making serious
contact with Butler. Butler, therefore, doesn't register the switch, and
Green gets a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner.



https://thumbs.gfycat.com/HeavyForsakenFoxterrier-mobile.mp4

Green punished the Heat for their expectations, goading Robinson into a
switch that wasn't necessary in order to free himself for easy points. Most
players slip too early. Some players oversell the screen. But nuance is
Green's specialty, and he isn't the sole beneficiary of those veteran tricks.

格林利用熱火的預期來懲罰熱火，誘導上將做不必要的換防來讓他自己自由。大部分的球
員太早溜走了，有些球員擋過頭了。

Peek-a-boo and the art of off-ball movement

捉迷藏和無球移動的藝術

Green spends a lot of his time in the corner. Many role players do. He starts
this play like most others, waiting there for the action to potentially reach
him. Eventually, it does. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope runs a loop around the
court, and Bam Adebayo chases him. But watch what happens when Caldwell-Pope
gets to the baseline. Green quickly shuffles out of the corner and behind
Tyler Herro, obstructing Adebayo's vision of him. He then immediately pops
back out from behind Herro once Caldwell-Pope has passed for a surprise
screen on Adebayo, which takes him off of Caldwell-Pope.



https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GenerousAcademicCirriped-mobile.mp4

It's the role player equivalent of White Goodman's patented peek-a-boo
attack, but its impact is much subtler. The hard screen forces Adebayo off of
Caldwell-Pope and into the corner on Green. Despite his best efforts, that
functionally takes Miami's best defender out of the play, which turns into a
dunk for Davis that he couldn't contest because of Green's gravity.



Green quietly punked Adebayo again a bit later, and just as before, the move
was subtle. Bam winds up in the corner on Green, and as Davis drives, Green
gives Adebayo a nice little tap on the back, as if to say "don't worry big
fella, I'm right here, you can leave me alone and creep towards the basket."
It buys him a split second of freedom to launch the 3.



https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BowedDistantHornbill-mobile.mp4

Adebayo was a Second-Team All-Defense forward this season. Few wings have
gotten the better of him. Green did in the second quarter of Game 4 through
little more than veteran guile. He has plenty of that on defense as well.

阿爹是防守第二隊，很少有人防守比他好，但格林在第二節卻很多詭計騙了他。除了進攻
，在防守上也有很多招式。

His lightning-quick, ambidextrous hands
他的手非常快，左右雙撇子

Green revealed in an interview during his rookie year that he is
ambidextrous, but nobody paid it much mind because he barely dribbles. Where
it has come into play, though, is on defense. Green is not just comfortable
swiping with either hand, but can do so at almost any angle. One of his Game
4 steals came as he chased Herro, reached around his body and poked the ball
out from behind with his right hand for the two easiest points of the night.



https://thumbs.gfycat.com/KeyVengefulFawn-mobile.mp4

He very nearly came up with another steal from behind, this time with his
left hand while side-shuffling over a screen.

他幾乎又再抄到一球，這次他利用繞過單擋的時候，用了他的左手撥掉球

Green has lost a step with age and a hip injury has nagged him during the
postseason, but he remains a valuable defender in large part because of how
he can use his length. Green tied for the Laker lead in deflections per game
during the regular season, and even if he gets beaten off of the dribble more
than he used to, he still affects jump-shooters even after chasing them
around the court.



It speaks to one of Green's best traits, something that has shown up in all
of these clips: his spatial awareness. Green uses and manipulates his
position on the court as well as practically any off-ball player in
basketball, and he does it on both sides of the ball. It is part of what sets
him apart from his more traditional 3-and-D contemporaries. He doesn't need
to hit his 3's to provide value.

格林最棒的特色就是他的空間感，以上影片所展示的進攻和防守都來自於此。所以即使他
投不進三分，他仍然比傳統的3D球員有價值

In a sense, that could be viewed as the mantra for this entire Laker team.
They are about to win a championship in the highest-volume 3-point shooting
season of all time despite taking the 23rd-most 3-pointers per game in
basketball. Their stars drive that contrarian approach, but their role
players support it, perhaps none more so than Green, the shooter that doesn't
need to shoot.




心得：
真影子籃球員
可惜沒有影子投籃的準度

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