Gerald Green On Decreased Playing Time: “It’s Like Having A Pimple”
The Phoenix Suns’ explosive offensive attack as of late has had much to do with the development of one Gerald Green. If not for his teammate Goran Dragic, Green could have easily been the league’s Most Improved Player last season.
Along with Isaiah Thomas, Green has been part of an elite bench scoring tandem in Phoenix. Green’s minutes are significantly down as of late, most glaringly only three and a half minutes of play in the Suns’ 102-101 loss to Memphis on Monday night.
Green on his latest struggles, via Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic:
“It’s like having a pimple,” Green said. “Hey, you’ve got it for a couple days. Hopefully, it’s going to pop and you can get back to normal.
“In between, it’s gross as hell. It hurts. It’s like, ‘Damn, I don’t feel like doing nothing.’ You’re just all mentally messed up over it. As soon as it’s gone, you’re back to normal.”
“It’s tough,” Green said. “I ain’t going to lie. It’s hard. Man, it’s hard. I’ve just got to just figure it out. At the end of the day, I’m a professional. I’ve got to CONTINUE
to work hard. I’ve got to continue to motivate my teammates. When I got my time to play, I’ll be ready. But it’s hard as hell. I ain’t going to lie. It’s hard to deal with. It’s easy when we win. When we lose, it’s a lot tougher.”
From Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek on Green:
“If he could just be solid defensively, that’ll help out,” Hornacek said. “We’ve had these tougher games where you’ve got your main guys in Goran and Eric that need to be out there and Isaiah’s played well so it comes up to a minute thing.
“I think he’ll be fine. He’s going through a tough stretch. He’s a big part of what we need to do. He’ll get back there and play well for us.”
Defense is the big theme here for Green to hone in on, although his offensive production has dipped as of late. The 29-year-old worked his way to a point where he’s been expected to do more than make freak athlete plays. He’s developed into a rangy scorer and shooting threat, but Hornacek is looking for him to take another step in his development.
To echo Green’s analogy, he’ll just have to keep at it and try to pop that pimple.
