Mavs Sign 'Great Fit' Rookie Josh Green
DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks were in desperate need of wing depth heading into the 2020 NBA Draft, and on Wednesday night they got some help, selecting Arizona three-and-D prospect Josh Green with the 18th overall selection.
“In our range (at 18), Josh was a guy that was at the top of our list,'' Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said.
Green - who on Monday's eve of the start of training camp signed his rookie contract - is known as an athletic marvel, who thrives on the defensive end of the floor, both in skill and in tenacity.
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Standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 210 pounds with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, Green has the ability to guard multiple positions and should be able to help alleviate some of the issues the Mavs had on the defensive end of the floor last season ... and maybe do so immediately.
More from Carlisle: “Terrific two-way player. Terrific athlete. ... What we needed first for our roster were wing defenders who can shoot, score and hopefully make plays. We feel he's a ready-to-go 3-and-D guy.''
During his freshman season at Arizona, Green was lauded as one of the best defenders in all of college basketball and finished the year averaging 1.5 steals per game.
Offensively, Green, who will wear No. 8 in Dallas, is still a bit of a work in progress in some areas, where he averaged 12 points and just under three assists on 42-percent from the field, and 36-percent from beyond the arc.
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According to DallasBasketball.com's draft guru, Richard Stayman, Green is an excellent finisher around the rim but needs to improve his shot-making on pull-up jumpers and fine-tune his ball-handling as well.
On the whole, however, it seems with Green that the Mavs have found a player that they can plug in immediately, who will help improve in multiple areas of need, which can be hard to find in a mid-first-round pick.
And what did the 20-year-old Green, a native of Australia, think before the draft about possibly landing in Dallas?
“Definitely the next couple of years, they’re a championship-contender team,'' he said. "Me being able to come in and play defense, just being versatile and hitting open shots, I think it would be a great fit.”
