10-04-2022, 12:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-04-2022, 12:49 PM by speedkilz88.)
(10-04-2022, 10:32 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: I was able to read this article. Typically I cannot, so I guess I will post.
https://twitter.com/calliecaplan/status/...24580?s=46&t=iNRjUDIFtEG86eWxnweGBA
(Brave browser will allow you to access this type of paywall automatically, opera might as well)
Josh Green has known his trainer, Joe Abunassar, for years, so when the Mavericks’ Western Conference finals run ended in May with the 21-year-old guard out of the rotation, Green didn’t disguise his disappointment.
“Man,” he told Abunassar about a week after the playoffs, “this is going to be a big summer.”
Abunassar replied: “Let’s do it.”
And so they did.
Talk with Mavericks coaches and players through the first week of training camp, and most will highlight Green, unprompted, as the player who’s in the best shape, who improved the most this offseason and who could help fill the backcourt questions the team faces in Jalen Brunson’s absence.
What a response after all the tumult the 2020 first-round pick has endured.
Dallas’ preseason opener Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Tulsa will be the first chance for Green to play a true opponent with more confidence as a ball handler, more security as a scorer and more discipline as a shooter.
The Mavericks say these traits haven’t wavered since Green returned to Dallas from his rigorous, comprehensive, non-stop offseason training in Las Vegas.
As one recently told Abunassar: “This is no fluke.”
“They think, ‘OK, this kid is different. He figured it out,’” Abunassar said. “It’s just very, very refreshing to have a young guy say, ‘Hey, I don’t like the way last season went, and I’m going to do something about it.’”
The pre-dawn alarms, regimented diet and unrelenting physical demands Green experienced with Abunassar’s Impact Basketball program in Las Vegas might’ve felt like a grind.
But one task was even tougher: re-watching the Mavericks’ playoff film.
Last year, Green averaged 15.5 minutes across 67 games and found a rhythm from three after the All-Star break to boost his regular-season clip to 35.9% on low volume.
Coach Jason Kidd’s staff viewed second-year Green as a rookie after former coach Rick Carlisle’s strict control and the NBA’s COVID-19 obstacles hindered his introductory 2020-21 season.
But come playoffs, Green’s hesitation and mechanics on offense became too much a liability to test, even when opponents would target him with their slowest defender in space.
Frank Ntilikina replaced him on the wing midway through the second round, and Green didn’t play more than eight minutes over the last 10 games.
“It was hard to watch it, but at the same time, it’s a learning curve,” Green said. “It just motivated me.”
Green moved to Las Vegas in early June, about a week after the postseason ended, and entered Abunassar’s program with three specific charges from the Mavericks’ leadership:
Improve ball-handling.
Finish better at the rim.
Shoot more consistently from three.
For Green’s first six weeks at Impact, Abunassar focused on correcting deficiencies.
They repped driving to the basket with two hands on the ball, not exposing it for turnovers. They re-set his 3-point shooting foundation to keep his right knee from flaring into what Green called a “stanky leg.” They simulated double teams to force Green to read defenses with the ball in his possession.
He ran scrimmages every day with trainers often pausing play to ask questions or discuss situations when he’d rush a move or make a mistake.
With most of Abunassar’s NBA clients off until late July, Green led offenses with draft prospects and rising young players as the veteran decision-maker.
“We were really working with him on ‘Josh, sloooow down. It’s that simple. Look what you had. You had a jumper here, you don’t need to take four dribbles,’” Abunassar said.
“He calls [his rushed tendencies] ‘hot potato.’ I say he’s got a motor stuck up his butt. Like, dude, somebody’s got to turn the motor off. So we turned the motor from Gear 4 back to Gear 1 and just let him see.”
Green’s secondary instructor arrived in August.
He and Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry had known each other from a few summer workouts with Abunassar in 2021 between the Olympics, but Green recognized the six-time All-Star point guard “really wanted to help me out” this offseason.
Together in August they lifted each morning, ran two-a-day workouts on the court, did Pilates sessions, watched film and ate meals because Green said “he wanted me to be around and do everything,” just as Kevin Garnett and Chauncey Billups had done for young Lowry in Abunassar’s program years earlier.
During one-on-one runs, Green noticed how the 36-year-old Lowry used shot fakes to create space and score without passing or moving his body. Dissecting those moves as his defender helped Green implement the same concepts in his own offense.
“Sometimes he’d look at me just like, ‘Man, slow down,’” Green said. “I was able to realize if you just slow down, the whole game just slows down so much, and there’s so much more you can do with the ball in your hand, rather than just panicking.”
With a low-carbohydrate, lean protein diet and consistent sleep schedule to recover from workouts, Green cut his weight from 222 pounds to 211, Abunassar said, and his body fat from 10% to 7%.
He missed training only for a trip home to Australia, where he hadn’t visited in about four years. Before the vacation, Green hesitated to leave Impact because he didn’t want to lose progress.
But once Green returned and shook the jetlag, Abunassar heard a common refrain from those watching and playing in Las Vegas.
“The other NBA guys in our gym were like, ‘God dang,” Abunassar said. “They kept saying, ‘He’s going to make a lot of money.’ That’s the way they look at it these days. They’d say, ‘He’s going to be in the rotation. That kid’s good.’”
The Mavericks will provide ample opportunity.
Green’s highlights through training camp include an active practice Friday, when Mavericks champion Brendan Haywood repeatedly marveled at Green’s evolution.
During the Fan Jam open scrimmage Saturday, Green rotated in Spencer Dinwiddie’s place, alongside the Mavericks’ four other starters. He ran with the same group Monday, ending the five-on-five portion of practice with his team’s game-sealing pass break-up.
Behind him, Luka Doncic flexed in celebration, and teammates shouted with praise.
“My first year, it was like I had a hot potato in my hand,” Green said. “I look at film of it, and [I’m] just like, ‘Dude, what are you doing?” I think going into Year 3, everything’s just slowed down. I’m a lot more confident. My teammates are a lot more confident in me, and that helps.”