When the San Antonio Spurs re-signed Danny Green to a four-year, $40 million contract over the summer, it was considered a major victory for one of the league’s most dangerous teams. Landing LaMarcus Aldridge was obviously the big score of the offseason, but getting a sharpshooter like Green to take such a steep discount preserved precious cap space available and helped keep a perennial contender intact.
There’s still plenty of time for Green to turn things around, but based on his first few weeks of the 2015-16 campaign, that $10 million annual salary doesn’t seem like the same bargain it was just a couple of months ago.
Through the first nine games of the season, the Spurs’ starting shooting guard is averaging 6.6 points and 4.3 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game. Those numbers aren’t terrible in and of themselves, but Green is shooting just 30.4 percent from the floor and making only 27.5 percent of his 4.4 three-point attempts per game.
In the season opening loss, he posted a four-point, 2-for-9 performance on the stat sheet. Against the Boston Celtics, he went 2-for-10 from the field. There was a 3-for-10 night in a loss against the Washington Wizards and a 1-for-9 performance in the team’s most recent win. A quick look at his shot chart is like a peak inside the world’s most disproportionate bag of Skittles:
To be fair to Green, he’s not even close to being the most important cog in the Spurs’ offense. He’s taking the sixth most field goal attempts per game (7.7) out of anyone on the team, trailing Kawhi Leonard (17.1), LaMarcus Aldridge (13.7), Tony Parker (9.0), Manu Ginobili (8.5) and Tim Duncan (7.9).
As one might expect, Green’s shot attempts seem to correspond with his role behind the team’s more prominent players.
But for a team as balanced as the Spurs, Green’s woeful perimeter shooting to start the season has been one of the few hindrances preventing them from reaching their typical peak levels of offensive execution.
And the other thing: It still doesn't feel like the Spurs' Death Star is yet fully operational.
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) November 10, 2015
Not all of that can be blamed on Green, obviously. As a team, the Spurs are only shooting 34.3 percent from three-point range — which ranks 15th in the NBA — despite leading the league in overall field goal percentage at 48.5 percent. Incorporating a ball-stopper player like Aldridge into a team-based offense was always going to take time, and as the season progresses, there’s no reason to doubt this team’s ability to morph back into one of the league’s most unstoppable offenses.
But Green’s inability to knock down good looks has also held the Spurs back so far. Against the Oklahoma City Thunder on opening night, Green took a horrendous three from the top of the key with his team trailing by two…with 12 seconds left on the clock…when Leonard already had 32 points on the night and was dominating Kevin Durant on both ends of the floor.
Instead of getting the ball to the team’s new superstar in Leonard or their new go-to guy in Aldridge, Green launched an ill-advised three way too early in the clock, got it partially blocked by Steven Adams and nicked the bottom of the rim — missing so badly that Aldridge couldn’t even corral in the rebound before it went out of bounds.
Add that play to a growing list of dumbfounding trivia factoids for Danny Green’s 2015-16 season, including this interesting tidbit: According to NBA.com, Green is shooting just 30 percent in catch-and-shoot situations (28.4 percent from three-point range). Considering how many catch-and-shoot opportunities we’ve seen Green drill in the past, that’s an uncharacteristically low percentage.
On shots that NBA.com classifies as “open” (with the nearest defender being 4-6 feet away), Green is shooting just 18.2 percent from the floor and 14.3 percent from downtown. On “very open”shots (the nearest defender being 6+ feet away), he’s converting just 31.6 percent of his looks and 23.5 percent of his threes.
This isn’t a matter of the Spurs not getting the same quality looks they enjoyed before Aldridge came to town; this is simply a matter of Danny Green missing good shots.
However, even with all of this discouraging data, it’s still far too early to worry about San Antonio’s oft-criticized sharpshooter.
Lot of worry about Danny Green's shooting early this season, but I guarantee it's not the first time he went 7 of 32 in any given stretch.
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) November 12, 2015
For one thing, nine games is a tiny sample size in the context of an 82-game season. For another, San Antonio is still 7-2 on the season despite Green’s early struggles, which can simply be chalked up to how any shooter goes through rough stretches every now and then.
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Despite not having a single player averaging more than Ginobili’s 3.8 assists per game, the Spurs’ attack has been so balanced that San Antonio still ranks third in the league in assists per game at 25.3. This team knows how to move the ball, and Green will continue to get these same quality looks throughout the season.
The fact that more than half of Green’s shots have come in situations that NBA.com classifies as “open”or “wide open” is a great sign, and since the Spurs’ three-point marksman has drilled 42.3 percent of his threes over the last four seasons, the law of averages indicates he’ll shake off this early slump as the season progresses.
San Antonio has been surviving just fine in the meantime, so even though the Spurs will need Green to be more efficient with his open looks as they get deeper into the season, there’s no reason to believe these struggles will persist.