Josh Green knew from the beginning of the season that his Dallas Mavericks had the skeleton of a team that could win it all.
“We’ve always had the approach that we’re a contending team and a championship team,” Green told KeynoteUSA.
The 23-year-old is entering the first NBA Finals of his young career, alongside fellow Australian Danté Exum, on a Mavericks team led by the electric duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, with the Boston Celtics as last obstacle. route to the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
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The Mavericks enter the Finals as the fifth seed in the Western Conference, but that number is not indicative of how the team is currently performing. Jason Kidd’s group took advantage of a wildly impressive finish to the regular season, along with three straight playoff series wins against high-level opponents, to announce themselves as a legitimate contender heading into the franchise’s first NBA Finals since 2011. , whose first game begins on Friday (AEST).
“We knew there were puzzles we had to solve along the way,” Green said. “If we judge and analyze last year to this year, the level of professionalism is different; it was set at a really high level at the beginning of the season. Everyone wanted to win at the beginning of the year. It’s what everyone said, and what each one proposes.”
The first piece of the puzzle that the Mavericks had to put together was how to face the last game of last season.
The Mavericks had a chance to make the Play-In tournament, but opted to rest key players, including Green, for their April 7 game against the Chicago Bulls. They lost the game (the NBA deemed it a bust and subsequently fined the team $750,000) and in turn kept their 2023 first-round pick. They would use the pick to select Dereck Lively II, the rookie center who has been one of the Mavericks’ most important players over the course of this run to the Finals.
That pick was the first of many decisions that would elevate this Mavericks team from a playoff contender to a true contender. There was the signing of Derrick Jones Jr. to a minimum deal to start the season that turned out to be one of the best contracts in the league, and the midseason trades to acquire both PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford.
Josh Green believes the Mavs are championship ready as they prepare to take on the Celtics. Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via /Keynote USA/Getty Images
The Mavericks’ four new faces were a big reason why Kidd’s team went 16-2 over an 18-game span to end the regular season, ranking as the NBA’s top-ranked team in defensive efficiency during that time. period, and they have been key. contributors during this deep playoff run.
“There were a lot of people who doubted us defensively as a team and the connection we had on the defensive end,” Green said.
“It definitely took time. Since the first day of training camp, that’s been the biggest emphasis of the entire coaching staff. Defensive principles are probably what we spend the most time on.
“Being able to add rim protection was huge. We had D-Live all season, but then having another one in D-Gaff changed a lot. Another big like that changes the game. There aren’t many NBA teams that have two extra guys 7’1; that definitely helped us. Then everyone really accepted winning. That’s when a lot of guys stepped into their roles in the second half of the season.”
What Green describes as players “stepping into their roles” is almost as important to winning as the excellence of Doncic and Irving. The Mavericks are built in a unique way, often described as heliocentric: all their processes happen almost entirely through the team’s main player (Doncic, in this case) and the rest of the roster occupy auxiliary roles.
The key is to maximize Doncic, who in turn can maximize them, but that comes with a certain level of sacrifice. It means abandoning any impulse to be a main player on a team; generally reducing what one does on the court to just one or two things, to improve the success of the group.
Josh Green was photographed jumping for the ball during Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against Minnesota. Photo by Stephen Maturen//Keynote USA/Getty Images
Each season since being drafted by the Mavericks in 2020, Green has gradually refined his game into one complementary to Doncic’s, focusing on spot-up shooting, cutting and point-of-attack defense to play more effectively. along with the Slovenian. Superstar. This has led to the Sydney native playing a significant role for the Mavericks when it matters most, playing 17.8 minutes per game during these playoffs, averaging 4.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, while shooting to 35.4% from the center.
“Honestly, it’s a tough adjustment for anyone,” Green said. “But personally I think I want to win first.
“It took me a while to get used to it and it took me a while to realize what I need to do to be on the court. You can tell guys like Kyrie and Luka appreciate it. They know the job that role players do. They know it’s not like they’re role players can’t do more, but we have Luka and Kyrie and there are certain things we have to do for our team to win, and we are willing to sacrifice for it;
“That’s why we’re in the final. Our goal is to continue being a winning team, and that means accepting your role.”
Playing in a polished role is a sacrifice of sorts, but the reward is knowing that you can follow Doncic’s greatness to the NBA’s biggest stage.
Doncic, still only 25 years old, is widely considered the best player in the series heading into these Finals, and Green believes his teammate deserves even greater consideration.
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“There’s a reason he’s considered the best player in the world and he deserves it,” Green said of Doncic. “He had a very strong case to be the MVP this year and, being biased, I think he should have been the MVP.”
When asked what makes Doncic special and why it’s so difficult to guard him, Green paused briefly and then continued: “It’s his pace,” Green said. “His understanding of the game.
“You can tell he’s played with older guys his whole life; the way he plays and the composure with which he plays. He always plays at a very slow pace, so people are surprised at how quick he is from side to side. another. It’s furtively fast from side to side.
“I think that’s what surprised a lot of people defensively this season as well: that he can stay in front of people. He’s done an unbelievable job on the defensive end. I think it’s his pace, combined with his size, combined with his Ability to create shots. Not many guys shoot better when they step back, but that’s their rhythm.”
An Australian who is active on a roster has not been to an NBA Finals since Andrew Bogut did so with the Golden State Warriors back in 2019, and the last to win a championship was Matthew Dellavedova with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
Green and Exum hope to follow in Dellavedova’s footsteps and win an NBA championship ring before immediately traveling to the Olympics to represent the Australian Boomers.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid,” Green said of being in a final.
“When you go down the road to get to the finals, you don’t really have time to reflect on it and to be able to do it. Now that I’m here and I’m preparing, I’m ready. To go, I’m super excited, my body feels good now that I’ve had a week off.
“From day one, we had a championship in mind. It’s the first thing we talked about. That was our goal. A lot of people say they want to be a championship team, but I think we’ve shown that we really want this. There’s a reason why that we are here.”
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