How Dallas Mavs' Josh Green Continues to Grow Game Using Handoffs
DALLAS — Josh Green is coming off a career year for the Dallas Mavericks, averaging 9.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 60 games last season while also having great shooting efficiency. After a busy offseason featuring a good showing with Australia at the FIBA World Cup, he will look to raise the bar even higher in this year’s campaign.
As the Mavs continue to seek faster play, Green remains one of the most critical catalysts to do so. While he's explosive on the open floor, the factors that go into playing at a higher pace go well beyond just running in transition.
The Mavs need players to make quick decisions in the half-court and play out of read-and-react actions, including dribble handoffs (DHOs), and Green can do just that. It's also another way to alleviate pressure from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving by applying more pressure on opposing defenses. Given the explosiveness Green displays, he's a prime option to utilize in DHO situations, and the team did so in their preseason finale victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday.
Green scored 15 of his 22 points in the first quarter, utilizing a quick trigger on the catch from 3-point range. He spaced the floor, filled a lane in transition, or played out of a DHO. The more Green can continue to establish himself as a threat from deep, the greater level of respect from the defense will have to apply by going over the screen contact. Such an outcome could open up more opportunities for him to attack downhill using his speed.
When Green does attack downhill against an under, taking the pull-up in mid-range is another way to make the defense pay, as he did out of the corner on an early possession in a DHO with Dereck Lively II while Pistons’ Jaden Ivey went under to play the drive. The defense will need to respect the pass threat to Lively as a roller in that situation, but priority No. 1 is taking away the drive for Green, presenting the pull-up as a choice.
"I think just going through different looks, some teams will go under and play my drive, and I think it's being able to learn all the different counters I have to that," Green said. "I've been watching film, putting myself in those situations, and knowing that I can shoot the ball coming off a handoff or be able to pass to somebody like Lively. I [can] throw it anywhere, and Lively's there. Just knowing my reads and also learning from my mistakes in practice and everything like that, just getting reps up."
Dallas Mavericks' Josh Green attacking the paint against the Detroit Pistons.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Outside of spot-up and transition plays, it'll be important for Green and the Mavs to continue integrating layers into how he makes his impact offensively as he develops. Last season, he was sometimes deployed as the ball handler in some ball-screening actions and was highly effective as he produced 1.121 points per possession (PPP) on 33 plays, ranking in the 94th percentile among players with ten or more plays.
When playing out of a ball screen, Green often has room to attack downhill, whether by the screener being a shooting threat with gravity or often by rejecting the screen when set by a non-shooting threat. There were flashes of him being utilized in more creative actions like Spain pick-and-roll (with a back-screener on the roller) or double drag, but those came in games without Doncic or Irving. When the superstars were on the floor, using one of them as a screener opened up things for Green in a limited volume of possessions due to the defense being reluctant to switch.
It would also help if Green is able to continue to show a quick trigger in off-ball screening actions or handoffs to make the defense pay for not staying attached. He's showing signs of this progression in preseason but will surely need to continue to do so in the regular season. Other variations the Mavs are focused on developing with Green include him playing out of the chase after making the pass.
"As a young player, he's being comfortable understanding how the defense is going to play him, and I think that's where it starts, understanding that they're going to go underneath him,' Mavs coach Jason Kidd said of Green. "So being able to use his speed, but also being under control — he's doing a really good job."
Last season, Green's efficiency had plenty of room for improvement playing out of handoffs overall, but again, the sample size was far from extensive. Accounting for just 6.1 percent of his overall possessions (31 total), he generated 0.742 PPP, which ranked 145th among 155 players with 30 or more of these plays.
During the portion of Saturday's practice open to the media, Green worked on DHO variations with assistant coach Alex Jensen. It provided a closer look at how Green remains focused on adding the necessary layers to his arsenal to be as well-rounded of a threat as possible in these situations.
"Again, at the summer, to be able to add that to his game, to play out of the DHO, be able to play out of the chase, with his speed and his ability to get downhill, it just makes it harder for him to defend," Kidd said of Green. "But as you saw, he's working truly hard on that, and he's having some success with that right now."
Green continues to work on his execution of off-screening actions, too, which also requires precision as a motion shooting threat like DHOs. He was involved in only 21 total off-screening plays that ended in a scoring attempt in 2022-23 but generated 1.095 PPP in those situations. It's something to keep an eye on throughout his career due to the threat giving him the ball creates with momentum going to the rim.
In the big picture, DHOs are just one of the many parts of how Green can continue to grow his impact on the Mavs. He told DallasBasketball.com during the World Cup that he desires to provide a bigger defensive presence with the Mavs this season after serving as Australia's top point-of-attack defender.
