Gerald Green — #14
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Birthday: Jan. 26, 1986
Height: 6-8
Weight: 210
Position: SG/SF
Experience: 6 years
Draft: 2005, 18th overall pick by Boston
College: Gulf Shores Academy (High school)
2013-14 Salary: $3.5 million
Season Outlook: With too many options at small forward for the Phoenix Suns, Gerald Green could be on the outside looking in. P.J. Tucker seems set to earn a good deal of minutes at the 3, and Marcus Morris will be given minutes as the Suns hope to either deal him or see if he becomes part of the future. Green was aided by the Suns trading Caron Butler to the Milwaukee Bucks after his few summer weeks as a Sun, but Green still will have to work for his minutes.
Green actually could be valuable as a shooting guard if the Suns aim to win games and space the floor under coach Jeff Hornacek. While Green has been wildly inconsistent throughout his career, he has grabbed at being a 40-percent shooter from three-point range in a few of his NBA seasons; with a green light in Phoenix, he could find confidence to go with his sometimes questionable shot selection. Green, who was drafted by a Boston Celtics team in 2005 whose front office included current Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, also fits into the identity of a Suns team that wants to run and has the athleticism to be capable of playing decent defense.
Biography:Gerald Green entered the NBA as one of the last high schoolers to jump straight to the league with his 2005 draft preceding the refurbished collective bargaining agreement that required players to spend at least one year out of high school in college — or elsewhere. The product from Gulf Shores Academy in Houston, Texas, was a McDonald’s All-American his senior season before getting drafted by the Boston Celtics 18th overall. The road since has been marked with battles for the small forward.
Green was sent to the D-League in his rookie season, but had a more successful sophomore campaign where he averaged 10.4 points per game and added a slam dunk contest victory to his resume. But after that season with Boston, he was a part of the trade that sent Al Jefferson to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for All-Star power forward Kevin Garnett. In 2008, Green’s most notable contribution was another dunk contest — no other player has blown out a candle on a birthday cake before dunking — and after being traded to the Rockets and getting waived, he signed with the Dallas Mavericks for the remainder of another tough individual season.
After two years in Russian and China, Green failed to stick on the Los Angeles Lakers roster for 2011-12 but finally got a big break with a struggling New Jersey Nets team. Several 10-day contracts went well and he was signed for the rest of the year to play 31 games and average 12.9 points per game. The earned Green his current contract. The Indiana Pacers signed him as a shooter off the bench but in 2012-13 Green struggled to fit in and eventually was nixed from Frank Vogel’s rotation. In the offseason, he was dealt with Miles Plumlee and a first-round pick to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Luis Scola.