Orien Greene, As Seen By A Celtics Fan

by Tom Ziller on Sep 3, 2007 7:29 AM PDT in Commentary

I don't know much about Orien Greene or Mustafa Shakur as players, so I'm turning to those who do for help. First up, Greene as seen by a Celtics fan. Orien played 1,200 minutes for Boston in 2005-06, so C's fans have certainly seen him more than any other NBA fanbase.

Here's Jeff Clark of the famed CelticsBlog:

Tommy Heinsohn (ever the optimist) used to say that all that kid needed was a jumpshot to become a very good player in this league. And boy was that jumper ugly. You had to watch closely to see it because he was deathly afraid of taking any shots at all.

On the other hand, he was a defensive minded, pass-first point guard, and that goes a long way in my book. The problem was he couldn't hold onto the ball either. Think Rajon Rondo with Crisco hands. We had Delonte West, drafted Rondo and traded for Sebasitan Telfair, so Greene was an easy cut in a numbers crunch. It didn't help that he was caught going 90 on a city street.

I wish him well, I always pulled for him. On the other hand, even when the Celtics traded away all their backup point guards, his name never really entered my mind as a guy we should look into. He might be a nice find for you guys, especially if he's working with Thorpe. And if he doesn't pan out, the risk isn't that great.

As we've said, Greene has two things worked for him here: 1) Geoff Petrie has repeatedly gone for defensive-minded backups behind Mike Bibby, and 2) Petrie seems to have some deference to players connected to Thorpe since Kevin Martin exploded. But really, what settles this positional battle will be who plays better in preseason and who goes harder in training camp.

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Re: Orien Greene, As Seen By A Celtics Fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9a4iHcoTRY

ronniepricish

by cwebb on Sep 3, 2007 7:41 AM PDT reply actions

Re: Orien Greene, As Seen By A Celtics Fan

At the end of the day, Shakur and Greene are battling for the 12th or 13th seat on the Kings roster, unless big minutes like Bibby or Artest get traded elsewhere (and then you'll have to factor in what the Kings get in return).

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by section214 on Sep 3, 2007 9:38 AM PDT reply actions