Jeff Green/ Shawn Marion Comparison

If Green ended up being as good as Marion it would not only be a huge win for the C’s but would be extremely extremely unlikely. In addition to being a more efficient scorer across the board for his first 4 seasons (despite being one of the go-to guys on his team, which is generally detrimental to efficiency), Marion’s advantage in rebounding is just HUGE. it’s not even close. Marion also posted better assists, significantly better blocks and steals, and earned a reputation as an elite-level defender. He also slipped into 4th option mode with nearly no dent in his production.

In other words, Marion at 4 years was way better in basically everything than Green is by year four, and there are no hints Green can do Marion type things at Marion’s level.

You can’t compare anyone number to number against guys that played in The Suns system, every offensive statistic is inflated.

Marion started his career with a Jason Kidd and Penny Hardaway passing to him, he was on a 50 win team that was full of experience and expectations. Jeff Green was in a situation where the team wasn’t good, the city was more worried about keeping their team in Seattle, and his PG was Earl Watson. They put up similar numbers but Jeff Green was more impressive because he wasn’t being left wide open, no one cares about rookie Shawn Marion when Penny Hardaway, Clifford Robinson, and Jason Kidd are running around… same can’t be said for Wally Z and rookie Kevin Durant.

Then in each of their 2nd years things went backwards for Green and forwards for Marion. With Hardaway hurt, Phoenix turned to Marion to make up for all those missing points. In OKC they drafted Russell Westbrook, who immediately positioned himself as the Robin to Durant’s Batman…despite shooting 39% from the field the rookie guard was calling his own number 13.4 times per game (Green got 13.7 shots).

The next year in Phoenix brought a new starting PG for Shawn Marion. Jason Kidd was gone and in came Stephon Marbury. While Stephon took over as the team’s leading scorer he also could set up his teammates. In 2002 The Phoenix Suns 1st and 2nd options averaged the exact same amount of field goals attempted per game, it was literally a 1A and 1B. But for Jeff Green’s 3rd year his PG situation grew even worse. Jeff was getting less and less looks every year while his PG took more and more BAD looks. In Oklahoma City the media was starting to wonder why Green’s points were down, when clearly it was just his shots that were down.

Now in Boston Green has that pass first PG who will look to get him good shots. Marion has played with Kidd, Marbury, Nash, then Kidd again. When Jeff Green get’s to play 30+ minutes a game with Rajon Rondo setting him up… then you can compare the numbers.