Green trying to block out negative thoughts
Talking about Raptors forward’s playoff shooting slump isn’t helping matters
Danny Green has friends and family, even complete strangers, coming out of the woodwork to tell him not to dwell on his shooting slump.
Everyone wants him to know they still believe in the Toronto Raptors’ struggling “three and D” specialist. Some even tell him they still love him (we’re assuming this based solely on the fact that Green is a lovable type of guy).
And, finally, they want him to just keep shooting because everyone who has ever turned on sports radio or a sporting telecast knows the only way out of a slump is to keep shooting.
Green had his own public service announcement Monday when he took his turn at the podium on this inaugural NBA Finals week in Toronto.
His message: Please don’t. Don’t tell him to keep shooting. Don’t tell him not to think about it because, well, that’s just stupid advice.
“It’s hard not to think about it because everybody in the world’s telling you ‘don’t think about it’ — everybody you come across — ‘keep shooting it,’” Green said, masking any frustration he might have with humour and getting the expected laughs. “Trust me, I’m going to keep shooting. ‘Don’t think about it,’ though. I’m trying not to. I keep glancing at my inbox. You keep reminding me. People text me to (tell me) ‘don’t think about it.’ I know that.
“Everybody I come across,
‘try not to think about it, keep shooting.’ I’m not second-guessing myself,” Green insisted. “Whenever I get a look, more so than anything I let my defence fuel that side of the floor for me. Be active, try and get in passing lanes, rebound, box out, get into guys and then offensively just run and hopefully build my rhythm back that way. But to just keep shooting, don’t think about it and try to block out the noise from the media, your inbox, and everybody else that tells you not to think about it.”
We’re sure Green is appreciative of all the love and advice in difficult circumstances. But we also get the frustration at that advice.
Consider your job, something you probably do better than most people you know. Then imagine everyone in your life and many people not in your life weighing in with what you should be doing. It would be maddening.
Green is no different. He just does his job in front of cameras and has an entire country and then some counting on him.
All that aside, Green made it clear he wants nothing more than to put this slump to bed once and for all. Green hasn’t made a three-pointer since Game 3 of the six-game Milwaukee series. In that series, he made just four of 23 threes.
He had two good shooting games and five sub-par shooting games in the previous seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal win over Philadelphia. For the series, he was 13-of-35 from deep, which isn’t a bad 37 per cent rate. Then the Milwaukee series began and the numbers started to plummet.
Now the Raptors are up against the juggernaut Golden State Warriors. This is a team scoring more than 117 points a game in the playoffs with a lineup that has been missing Kevin Durant for five games.
In short, the Raptors are going to need every offensive weapon in their arsenal, and that includes Green.
The hope is a new series against a new opponent with an extended rest period in between games will do the trick.
Fred Vanvleet was in a similar funk until Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final. He exploded out of that funk to hit 14 of the final 17 three-pointers he tried in the series, going from ice cold to red hot in no time.
The same teammates who had Vanvleet’s back when the ball wasn’t finding the target for him now have Green’s back.
It’s hard not to think about it because everybody in the world’s telling you ‘don’t think about it’ — everybody you come across — ‘keep shooting it.’
“It’s a new series for Danny,” Kyle Lowry said.
“I think that series happened a certain way. It’s over with now. I don’t think that even matters. I don’t think anything that happened the last series matters, besides us finding ways to win games. That’s what we take from that series. Danny will be fine. Game 1, he’ll be ready to go.”
We do know this: Head coach Nick Nurse will keep running Green out there and let him do his thing.
If after three or four shots the slump remains intact, Nurse will do what he’s done the past few games and call on Norman Powell.
“For some reason the Philly series didn’t suit Norman Powell, but for some reason the Milwaukee series did,” Nurse pointed out.
“Maybe that Milwaukee series didn’t suit Danny for some reason, and maybe this one will, and that’s where you’ve got to kind of go until you see it.”