Draft Report: Donte Greene Of Syracuse
Authored by Christopher Reina - 9th June, 2008 - 4:54 pm
While freshmen like Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, Jerryd Bayless, and Kevin
Love had hugely successful seasons, Donte Greene’s lone year in Syracuse was
a mixed bag as his talent couldn’t catch up with his shot selection.
Greene is an immensely gifted offensive player and should become a very good
inside/outside scorer, but he has a chucker mentality right now. He has a
great shot for a player of his size and age, but he has no conscious at all
in terms of shot selection and has poor shooting percentage predominantly
because of his types of shots.
There really is no way to overstate how much of a chucker he is, but for the
sake of the remainder of this report we will assume, his NBA coach will reel
it in for the rookie in ways that Jim Boeheim didn’t have the luxury.
His technique as a spot-up shooter is great, with an amazingly high arc, good
rotation, and very nice lift although he jumps forward a little bit too much
instead of going straight up. He is far more efficient when getting open
looks, though, because he has yet to become proficient shooting with a hand
in his face.
There is also an occasional little hitch in his shot when bringing it up off
dribble attempts.
Greene’s movements without the ball are minimal as he too heavily relies on
being a spot-up shooter, so he typically tries to drift into open space and
make himself available to the passer. When he does cut and get open near the
rim, where he is a tremenously explosive finisher, he gets easy lay-ups and
lobs. He is also very acrobatic and agile in the air for a player his size.
It is doubtful Greene will be talented enough to warrant being the high
volume shooter he was at Syracuse, but as those shots decrease, he has the
skill-set to become a good passer and facilitator.
He is a much better ballplayer when he makes a concerted effort to get into
the paint with the dribble to create shots for himself or to draw a help
defender to setup a kick out or drop off.
For every great pass he completes, Greene will also make an errant one,
largely resulting from leaving his feet. His decision-making as a passer
largely mirrors his shot selection and ,therefore, gets spectacular high-risk
passes that don’t always connect.
Greene should eventually become above average in the post and mid-post as
soon as he gets more reps catching the ball in that area. Fining him for
shooting any 3-pointer during his first summer league could force him to
develop this part of his game.
He has a nice turnaround in the low post that he can get over the longest of
defenders when he decides to get gritty.
Then again, getting gritty is frequently the problem for Greene. He will body
up against his defender in the post and get good positioning for himself but
will attempt a weak hook shot or settle for a high-degree of difficulty
fadeaway. He has an incredible wingspan and good strength for his age both of
which go under-utilized in this part of the floor.
But, in the UMass NIT game he caught the ball in the mid-post, pivoted
baseline to fake a fadeaway to get his man in the air, and then dribbled hard
into the lane for a monster one-handed dunk in traffic. He missed the dunk,
but this was a perfect glimpse of how much potential he has to wow people in
this area of his game.
In the same game, however, Greene shot-faked from about 30-feet out on their
halfcourt offense, which I suspect he sincerely considered as a realistic
shot attempt.
But his shot fake truly is a good one, and he should use it for as long as
defenders continue to tightly contest those perimeter shots and don’t dare
him to take perimeter attempts. In doing so, he can move in his distance and
get cleaner looks.
Greene should also become a huge asset on the pick and roll. He already has
good footwork, and his athleticism, when he rolls and gest good a shot when
he pops, will make him a dangerous scorer. Syracuse probably would have made
the tournament by winning an additional game or two if Boeheim called for at
least three Greene/Johnny Flynn pick and rolls per night.
Greene has a great open floor dribble off defensive rebounds, but his options
are shoot, shoot, pass, and shoot (in that order) when bringing it up. He
should get many of those types of opportunities, though, because he is an
excellent rebounder in traffic.
On the offensive glass, Greene doesn’t crash particularly aggressively or
often although he does have a lot of ground to cover since he is so
frequently on the perimeter spotting up. He has great length and tips-in or
dunks-in most of the balls he does get to, which is another reason he shouldn
’t camp at the arc so frequently.
He is really good at filling the lanes in the break, but this is yet another
area of the game he doesn’t do frequently enough.
Like so many scorers, Greene could be a more motivated on-ball defender and
also learn better positioning in help defense. But he uses his athleticism
well as a shotblocker.
Greene is nowhere near ready for the NBA and would have benefited from an
extra year in college more than any other player in this draft. With Flynn,
Paul Harris, a healthy Eric Devendorf, and Arinze Onuaku, I would have liked
Syracuse’s chances to get to the Final Four.
He would have been able to juggle shooting 20 times a night yet learn how to
limit the number of difficult shots he attempts; in the NBA he will be
limited to a small inconsistent handful, and the odds of Greene developing
into the All-Star his potential suggests is possible will prove more difficult.
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