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For Mavericks second-year player Josh Green, last NBA season was mostly limited to a learning experience. He did not play much after being drafted with the 18th pick out of Arizona in 2020, appearing in only 39 games with a scoring average of 2.6 points.
That, though, is expected to change. And the Mavs made sure Green knows it by picking up his third-year option this week, which will keep him with the team through the 2022-23 season.
Speaking earlier in training camp, Green told reporters that bringing in new coach Jason Kidd would likely signal more chances for him to show what he can do.
“I think this is a new opportunity,” Green said. “We have a great staff here, a new staff, a new opportunity for everybody. Me, my biggest thing is coming in with confidence, knowing what I can do to help the team. Yeah, just coming in and giving it my all, and I am ready to go.”
Kidd has hinted that the team will be more willing to give opportunities to young players like Green than the previous staff under coach Rick Carlisle.
“When you go back and look at their last series against the Clippers, they gave the Clippers everything they could and maybe could have won that,” Kidd told Mavs.com about the Mavs’ seven-game playoff loss last year. “But we do have a very talented player in Luka. I think with (Kristaps Porzingis), (Dorian) Finney-Smith, Jalen Brunson and being able to keep developing a Josh Green – a young player – I think that’s what we’re focusing on is our young players playing more because we need everybody. It’s a team, so we want to develop players not just to be here to help Luka, but to help everyone.”
Josh Green Got Late-Season Playing Time
Green did have a stretch in which he hit the floor fairly regularly at the end of the season, appearing in 11 of the Mavs’ final 13 games. If there is hope that he is ready to be a contributor this season—though he is only 20 years old—it is in that stretch. He averaged 14.6 minutes, scoring 3.5 points in 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in that limited playing time.
He used that to fuel his summer workouts, he said. He did struggle in the preseason, averaging just 4.0 points in 18.3 minutes, making only 36.8% of his shots.
“At the end of the season, it was cool being able to get minutes, steady minutes in the rotation toward the end and kind of get momentum from that but also learning on what I need to improve on to be better next season,” Green said. “I was able to take that to Las Vegas, work out with my trainer and other guys, Kyle Lowry and other guys and stuff like that. It’s been amazing. I was able to learn so much as a player.”
Green Played Limited Minutes for Australia in the Olympics
There was, too, his time in Tokyo with the Australian national team. Again, he did not play much there, nothing six total points in 15 minutes played, but he learned a lot along the way for the bronze-medal winners.
The Mavericks held a special Australia-themed celebration for Green this week, per Mavs.com.
“I was able to learn a lot, I will say off the court more than on the court,” Green said of his Olympic experience. “Having guys like Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, (Matthew) Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, seeing how they handled themselves off the court recovery-wise and what they do as far as leadership for a team, it meant a lot for the younger guys coming up through the Australian system. So, just learning that sort of thing helped me more than on the court.”
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