Gerald Wallace's Job: Making Jeff Green An All-Star

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2014/10/gerald_wallace_s_job_make_green_a_star



Gerald Wallace’s job: Make Green a star



Sunday, October 5, 2014
By:  Steve Bulpett




You might think Gerald Wallace would be trying to bust his way out of town. You might think that, at 32 and in his 14th NBA season, he would rather be on a club with a chance to compete for a championship than playing it out as a fringe rotational guy for a team that figures to be rebuilding for a while.

Think again.

“I don’t want to go nowhere else,” said Wallace, whose days as “Crash” may be numbered as he comes back from knee and ankle surgeries. “I’m happy here. I’m content here with these guys.”

He also has to be pretty content with the two years left on his contract at $10,105,855 per. But Wallace has truly come to grips with his basketball mortality, and his comfort in Boston is about more than the fact he’s a longtime Red Sox fan.

“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s fun for me. I’m with a great group of guys who are eager to learn, who want to get better. For me, it’s not a bad situation at all. The guys listen. They want to improve. They want to get better as a team. For me, that’s cool. It’s kind of fun.”

And don’t go telling Wallace that he doesn’t have a role on this team. In fact, if he’s able to accomplish his goal, he could turn out to be one of the more valuable members of the organization. You see, Wallace has taken on the task of getting Jeff Green to realize his full potential.

“I’ve made a great relationship with Jeff,” Wallace said. “And like I told him, ‘I’m going to be on you all year long.’

“For this to be a successful season for me would be for him to go to the All-Star Game. That’s one of the things that I’ve been pushing. Me and him have been talking about it. I’ve been trying to give him ideas and things he can do to improve his game out on the court.

“It’s not so much his scoring, but some of the smaller things, you know, getting more rebounds and being more effective on the defensive end. There are things he can do to become a more all-around complete player.”

It’s fair to believe that if Green had Wallace’s grit and aggression on the floor, All-Star appearances would be a foregone conclusion.

“We’re working on it,” Wallace said with a smile. “We’re going to get it there.”

His outlook would seem to make him as much a part of the player development staff as an on-court factor.

“I think so,” Wallace said. “I think I’m more of a coach-slash-player, more of an extension off of coach (Brad) Stevens to be able to talk to some of these guys and share with them what I know and get them prepared, so then he doesn’t have to do as much.”

Still, it seems odd that a player with as much natural desire to play — and play hard — is willingly backing away. His body won’t allow him to play like before as he rehabs from injuries, but lesser players have pushed their career envelope beyond its bounds.

“It’s really not that bad,” the 6-foot-7 forward said. “I’m here. I’m eager to watch these guys grow. And two or three years from now when I retire, I’ll sit down on the couch and watch them play, and I’ll be able to say I helped that guy develop his game and I helped him become the person that he is in the league.

“I still have that bug to be out there. But if I play, I play. If I don’t, I don’t. The main thing about it at this point in my career is you want to be out there on the court, and you want to be able to perform and play every night. But me, knowing myself, I know I can’t go out there and play 48 minutes every night — especially after this surgery. This early in the season and coming off that, I’m not capable of doing some of things I would want to do on the court.”

So he’ll do the things he wants to do off the court, and that may be of even more benefit to the Celtics.




bob
MY NOTE:  Some players' contributions can't be measured by the box scores, nor critiqued by looking solely at their salaries.  Wallace doesn't have the box score anymore but his energy level and focus are contagious.  He has also turned out to be a MUCH, MUCH better locker room presence than any of us really thought he would be this time last year.  Remember those days?  Shell-shocked at the salary we knew we were going to have to swallow for 3 years, making no contact with the team until Media Day, no effort to show up early to work out with his new teammates, didn't know when the first pre-season game was, Mr. Grumpy lashing out at players and at coming off the bench for the first time in his career?  Boy, were we ever wrong about him.  Keith Bogans, if you also remember, seemed so reasonable and supportive of the team and where it was.  What do we know? If Wallace makes Jeff Green an All-Star he will have given the Boston Celtics and its fans a gift that Danny tried to buy this summer with Kevin Love, a second All-Star. It's easier to get a 3rd All-Star when you already have two.

Go Crash!



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I've pretty much forgotten about Wallace's contract to be honest.



KJ

I never thought all the yapping about Wallace's comments early in the season was justified. He was just displaying the same aggressiveness that he's trying to instill in Jeff. And the word "aggressiveness" is the perfect description of what Jeff most needs.

Sam

The Anti Keith Bogans. A guy who actually has some game left (unlike Keith), who is willing to accept his role and see the writing on the wall with grace and humility. Well played Crash.