Jeff Green is an unrestricted free agent this summer and the Orlando Magic should avoid him at all costs.
The Orlando Magic‘s season is coming to an end and now is a time for reflection.
Reflection on what could have been, but also on what this team and its players could be in the future.
This can take two forms, that of the optimist and also a more pessimistic outlook–which is kind of scary to truly embrace.
One guy who has helped the Magic fall into the latter category this season is Jeff Green.
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An unrestricted free agent this summer, Green will have made $15 million for his season’s work when the clock runs out on the team’s final regular season game.
He has also been out with back spasms for nearly two weeks now and with the season running out, it’s possible he’s done for the year.
That’s absolutely fine, as it allows Mario Hezonja to have more minutes in his absence.
Relative to how much he was paid this season though, was Jeff Green actually one of the worst players in the history of the franchise?
FanSided
This is not meant to be an attack on Green and any player who can get back on the court after missing a season with an enlarged heart should be commended.
But that’s kind of the problem with Green, though, and it always has been. He’s never pushed on to the next level, despite clearly being talented.
He was the very definition of resting on your laurels and taking the plaudits without ever getting any better.
That the league has become three-point crazy doesn’t help Green either, as he is a career 33.3 percent shooter from deep.
Now 30 years old, he should still be in his prime. Or at the very least a viable contributor off the bench, given how highly he was once thought of around the league.
It's sad that fans can tell within 5 mins and whether Jeff Green will suck or not and the coach can't
— Johnny Footlong (@RGeezyNBA) January 1, 2017
Instead Green mailed this season in, starting 11 of the 69 games he has appeared in so far, a number that is not likely to change.
In 22 minutes a night (by far a career low), he has posted career lows in points (9.2), assists (1.2) and rebounds (2.5).
Basic numbers don’t do his descent justice, as he is also posting career lows in offensive plus-minus (minus-2.8) and defensive plus-minus (minus-1.7).
Orlando Magic
He has done this with a Player Efficiency Rating (league average 15) of 10.2. That number is the second-lowest mark of his career, behind only his rookie season (9.8).
Some ugly numbers, but it gets worse than that. Magic fans, you should potentially look away now.
If we assume Green is done for the season, he will have made $23,510 per point scored (638) with the team.
Even if he comes back and averages 50 points per game for the rest of the season, that number isn’t going to look much better.
Three-pointers are at a premium these days as well and Green should know. He has made 53 of them, at a cost of $283,018 each.
That equates to $9,778 for each minute he has spent on the court with the team.
Green better have saved that money because no team is ever going to be foolish enough to give him that kind of money again.
For some kind of comparison, Yogi Ferrell of the Dallas Mavericks, who stuck with them at the turn of the calendar year, has scored the same amount of three-pointers in that time.
He is listed at 6-feet and has only played 31 games for the team.
His entire salary for the season ($207,798) is less than Green made per three-pointer he scored.
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Ferrell may seem like a random player to pick and he is.
But if an undersized point guard can latch onto a team halfway through a season and have more success than a veteran like Green has had for a fraction of the cost, what does it say about this team?
That they’re in trouble, although their woes extend far beyond the production Green gave them throughout the season.
You know what the worst part about all of this is though? Worse than even the sums of money spent and what the team got in return?
The attitude shown by Green throughout the whole season. He rarely smiled and spent most of his time on the court looking like he’d rather be anywhere else.
If there was an All-NBA Disinterested Starting Five, Green would be the first name on the team sheet. He’s now a Hall of Famer in that regard.
Of course playing for a team like the Magic takes its toll on guys in different ways, but his attitude was poor from early on.
Not only will the team be happy to give him minutes to other guys next season, they can wave goodbye to that attitude of his.
Unless of course they re-sign him, a terrifying thought, but with Rob Hennigan still the general manager, anything could happen.
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Jeff Green took the Orlando Magic for a ride this year and they paid for all of it. Up front.