As the 2012-13 regular season wraps up, there’s no weirder, more disorienting team to watch right now than the Boston Celtics. The Celtics have been odd ducks all season, patching together winning and losing streaks with no obvious internal logic or correlation to one another, cycling through lineups and featured players at a rate that only last year’s Knicks could really match in recent hoops history. The C’s of recent weeks went next-level with this, however. In Monday’s game against the Timberwolves, they played a 10-man rotation that only overlapped two players (Avery Bradley and Brandon Bass) with the 10-man rotation they played in a win over the Miami Heat exactly a year before, while losing in Minnesota for the first time since Kevin Garnett was shuttled between the two teams.
隨著2012-13賽季即將進入尾聲，沒有一支球隊能比塞爾提克更加奇怪、充滿迷惑了。塞爾提克整個賽季都不太正常，總是會一波連勝，一波連敗而且兩者之間沒有明顯的邏輯與關連性。而且他們不斷的嘗試不同陣容，這點只有上個賽季的尼克隊能夠相比。但是塞爾提克最近幾週進入了另個層次，在星期一對上灰狼的比賽中的10人輪替，只有兩個人(布萊德利和貝斯)重複出現在一年前擊敗熱火的10人輪替中，同時，從灰狼那得到賈奈特後第一次輸給了灰狼。
Now, a lot of this is obviously due to injuries. The Celtics’ Big Three have all missed time this season, with Rajon Rondo out half the season and counting with a torn ACL, KG sidelined indefinitely with ankle inflammation, and even the generally durable Paul Pierce missing Monday’s game with a sore ankle. And there was definitely a conscious effort to retool the team some last summer, making them younger, tougher and (in most cases) more athletic. To that extent, it makes sense that the roster would look markedly different than the classic KG-era Celtics rosters that we’re used to.
現在，這很明顯是因為傷病。塞爾提克三巨頭本賽季都因為傷病錯過了一些比賽，朗多因為十字韌帶撕裂季中之後已經報銷，賈奈特因為腳踝發炎而無限期傷停，甚至連一貫耐操的皮爾斯也因為腳踝酸痛缺席了週一的比賽。球隊在上個夏天有意識的對陣容進行了更新，讓其年輕化，更加強硬以及(更大程度上)更有運動天賦。 某種程度來說，這支球隊跟我們習慣的賈奈特時代的球員陣容有明顯的不同。
Still, that only goes half of the way to explaining the cognitive dissonance one feels watching the Celtics now — watching Jason Terry, Terrence Williams and Jordan Crawford all come off the same bench, watching games with Brandon Bass and Shavlik Randolph as the primary centers, watching the Celtics score 100 points and still lose, as they have in three of their last nine games. It’s not just a depleted Boston roster, it’s one with a completely different style and ethos, far closer to the run-and-gun small ball system employed by the late-’00s Warriors than the defensive-minded, half-court-oriented look of the late-’00s Celtics. It seems less like a team struggling through injuries than one that decided to rebuild completely without telling anybody. And at the heart of it all is Jeff Green.
這不能完全解釋為何你現在看賽爾提克的比賽會出現認知不一致的現象。我們看到了泰瑞、威廉斯和克勞佛同時從替補出發，我們看到了貝斯和藍道夫成為球隊的主要中鋒，我們看到了塞爾提克得到了100多分還是輸球。這不僅讓他們在布陣上捉襟見肘，這是一個完全不同的風格和精神，相比幾年前的那個防守至上、陣地半場進攻的塞爾提克，這支球隊更像21世紀初的那隻打跑轟和小球戰術的勇士隊。這支球隊並不像是一支在傷病掙扎中的隊伍，反而更像一支決定秘密重建的隊伍，而這一切的核心原自於格林。
Jeff Green entered this season as something of the forgotten man in the Celtics lineup, and possibly the whole NBA. Or at least, he would have been, if he hadn’t signed a four-year, $36 million contract with Boston that many instantly concluded was not close to commiserate with his likely production, a burden of anticipated-failure that hung over him as he followed up a promising preseason with a very slow start to the regular season, going FG-less in the season debut against Miami and then averaging an underwhelming 8.7 points and 2.5 rebounds on just 42 percent shooting (29 percent from deep) in November. The numbers improved little in December and January, and it quickly seemed like Green’s extension would be an albatross for Boston.
格林在賽季初似乎已經被塞爾提克甚至整個NBA給遺忘了，如果不是跟波士頓簽下了4年3600萬的合約，他肯定已經被遺忘了。當他以緩慢的狀態進入充滿希望的新賽季，他少得可憐的貢獻立刻讓人斷言和他的大合約無法匹配，人們甚至推測他會失敗而成為球隊的負擔，正如同他11月份的表現一樣，平均8.7分2.5籃板命中率42%(三分球命中率29%)，並且在首戰對邁阿密的比賽中一球未進。他的數據在12月和1月的時候提高了一些，這讓人們覺得格林的延長合約會成為波士頓的沉重負擔。
But have you seen Green’s splits coming off the bench (which he did for the majority of the season while Boston was healthier) and starting (as he’s done recently with so many regulars out)? If not, you really, really should:
Reserve: 64 Games, 10.9 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 1.2 APG, 44% FG, 33% 3PT
Starter: 10 Games, 21.5 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 3.6 APG, 55% FG, 52% 3PT
但是你看到了格林替補出場(本賽季波士頓健康的情況下)和先發出場(近期很多球員不能出場他所做的) 的差別了嗎? 如果沒有 你真的真的應該看一下
替補 64場 10.9分 3.4籃板 1.2助攻 命中率44% 三分球33%
先發 10場 21.5分 5.9籃板 3.6助攻 命中率55% 三分球52%
That’s not just the difference between a decent player and a good one, that’s the difference between a fringe rotation player and a borderline superstar. Reserve Jeff Green is overpaid and overhyped, Starter Jeff Green is on the shortlist of the league’s biggest bargains. It’s an absolutely staggering dichotomy, one made even more astounding by Green’s minutes-per-game splits, which show that not only does he score more when he plays more, he also scores more efficiently — shooting 39 percent when he plays 10-19 minutes, 46 percent when plays 20-29, 47 percent when he plays 30-39, and an astounding 52 percent when he plays 40 or more (in a sample size of just five games, too small to draw any real conclusions, but big enough to remain intriguing).
這不僅僅是一個優秀球員和合格球員的差別，這是一個替補邊緣球員和準巨星的差別，替補的格林是高薪低能、言過其實的球員，先發的格林卻是聯盟最物超所值的球員。這是個讓人吃驚的兩個極端，如果我們用格林的上場時間來區分，這一現象更加令人震驚，結果顯示當他出場時間更長的時候，他不僅得分更多，而且得分效率更高，他在出場10~19分鐘的時候命中率為39%，出場20~29分鐘命中率為46%，30~39分鐘命中率為47%，當他出場40分鐘或以上的時候，命中率達到了驚人的52%(5場的樣本太小，不足以得到真正的結論，但卻十足的耐人尋味。
These 10 games cast a shadow over not only the beginning of the Celtics season, but the previous six years of Green’s pro career, a career more characterized by confusion and disappointment than production and achievement. Green never floundered enough in his three-and-a-half seasons as a Sonic/Thunder to be considered a bust, and the perception persisted that he was a valuable player. But you rarely saw him dominate games, you were never really sure what his true role was (his skill set seemingly somewhat redundant with fellow oversized small forward Kevin Durant), and when you looked closely at the stats, little about them really backed up the idea that he was an All-Star talent.
這十場比賽不僅蓋過了當初來到塞爾提克的時候，還有他職業生涯前六年的陰影。他的職業生涯比起成就更多時候是被標註了迷惘和失望。格林在身披超音速/雷霆的前三個半賽季，雖然沒有真正的破繭而出，但人們依舊認為他是個有價值的球員。但是你很少見到他主宰比賽，你永遠無法確定他真的的角色是什麼(他的技術特點和同隊的大型小前鋒杜蘭特相似，顯得有點多餘)，然後當你仔細研究他的數據，你很難找出論點說他會成為全明星球員。
The experts confirmed this, with John Hollinger claiming in 2012 of Green that “there’s no evidence he’s actually good” and calling his extension the “worst contract of the summer,” and Zach Lowe rebutting Bill Simmons’ eye-test-over-advanced-stats vote of confidence in the new Celtic on a BS Report podcast by saying that it wasn’t just advanced stats that didn’t like him, no level of stats were particularly complimentary to him. Lowe’s point was arguable — Green did average 16.2 PPG and 6.5 RPG in ’08-’09 on 45 percent shooting and 39 percent from three, pretty decent face-value numbers — but it was true that Green had never posted a PER above 14 (NBA average is 15) for a season, and that only once had his defensive rating been lower than his offensive rating, posting a 106/105 in ’09-’10.
專家們也認証了這一點，根據John Hollinger2012賽季前瞻，他提到格林沒有證據證明他是個好球員，並且認為格林的續約是夏天最差的合約，雖然Bill Simmons在他的報告中秉持著”眼見為評，讓先進的統計學吃鱉吧!”表達了他對新綠血人的信心，但是Zach Lowe 卻反駁說”不僅是先進的統計學不喜歡他，任何統計都對格林不利。” Lowe的觀點值得商榷，格林在08~09賽季的數據是16.2分6.5籃板，45%的命中率，三分球39%，這是很體面的數據，但事實上格林從來沒有 個賽季超過14的PER效率質(聯盟平均15)，而且只有09~10賽季他的防守率低於進攻率 106/105
Also confounding the perception of Green as a good player was that not only had he not ever won much, he’d been involved in two trades in his career that helped build contenders, and he was sent the other way in both of them. Few could hold the first against him, where he was traded as the No. 5 pick in the 2007 draft from Boston to Seattle — seemingly moving from one lottery-bound club to another, except that Boston was able to use their trade return of Ray Allen as the prelude for a much bigger blockbuster deal that landed them franchise-changer Kevin Garnett, winning their first championship in over 20 years the very next season, as the Sonics won 20 games in their last season in Seattle. Green would at least go on to be part of the rebuilding effort in OKC, forming a lower-credentialed Big Three with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the now-Thunder fought their way back to NBA respectability.
而說格林是好球員的看法也有點亂，因為他不僅沒為球隊拿多少勝利，而且涉及到他的兩次交易都是他被送走，而球隊成為總冠軍的有力競爭者。2007年格林作為5號簽被波士頓送到西雅圖，這看起來像是兩支樂透區球隊間的小交易，但是波士頓卻用他們在交易中得到的艾倫作為誘餌，促成了日後的重磅驚天交易，得到了改變球隊的賈奈特，讓他們在近20多年裡獲得了首次的總冠軍。 而超音速在西雅圖的最後一個賽季只贏了20場比賽，格林至少可以和杜蘭特、威斯布克組成鐵三角，重新振興雷霆，而重獲聯盟的尊敬。
The second trade, however, would be the real doozy. Coming out of nowhere at the trade deadline in 2011, Green was sent from the Thunder back to the Celtics, in a deal that brought back Boston center/enforcer Kendrick Perkins. The Celtics, who had been absolutely rolling that season, going 41-14 before the trade, slipped badly after the trade deadline, going just 15-12 the rest of the way and losing to the Heat in five games in the second round of the playoffs, with their core so badly disrupted and their lack of frontcourt depth exposed after the trade of Perkins and injuries to aging centers Shaquille and Jermaine O’Neal. It seemed like the Celtics had sacrificed their title chances to rebuild in part around Green, and his production — about 10 points and three rebounds a game off the bench behind Paul Pierce — did little to justify that decision in the short term.
第二筆交易更有說服力，再2011賽季的交易截止日，格林被雷霆送回了塞爾提克以換取中鋒柏金斯。當時塞爾提克的運轉很好，交易之前是41勝14敗，在交易後的表現一落千丈，只有15勝12敗，並在季後賽第二輪5場比賽內敗給了熱火，這是因為交易走柏金斯後他們的核心陣容改變太大，而老邁的大小歐因為傷病讓他們的前場缺乏深度。看起來塞爾提犧牲了一次總冠軍機會來圍繞格林進行部份重建，但是他的貢獻-替補皮爾斯上場，10分3籃板，顯然在短期不能為這個交易辨護。
Meanwhile, even more damningly, the Thunder — who never won a playoff series with Green — made it all the way to the conference finals that year, falling to the eventual champion Mavericks but establishing themselves as a team to be reckoned with over the next decade. It wasn’t even that Perkins, their primary return in the trade, played all that well for OKC — his stats that season were far more negligible than Green’s ever were — but it was that without Green, their team suddenly made sense. There was no more positional overlap between with Kevin Durant, as the far more complimentary shot-blocker Serge Ibaka slid into the starting power forward role, and his scoring load was easily replaced by a stepped-up effort from second year combo guard James Harden, whose scoring was efficient in all the ways Green’s wasn’t. Seemingly just by ridding themselves of Jeff Green, the Thunder went from exciting young team to title contender overnight.
同時，更確實的事情，雷霆隊-在擁有格林時沒贏過一個季後賽系列-那年一路殺到了西區決賽敗給了總冠軍小牛隊，並且使他們成為接下來10年內讓人不可忽視的一支球隊，他們甚至是在主要交易對象柏金斯打不的情況下完成的，柏金斯那個賽季的數據跟格林比是微不足道的，但是就是因為沒了格林，球隊煥然一新，雷霆沒有了和杜蘭特位子重疊的問題，更好的蓋鍋好手伊巴卡也順利的溜到大前鋒的位子先發，而格林的得分貢獻也輕易的被二年級生哈登給取代，哈登的得分效率甚至全面的超越了格林。似乎只是擺脫了格林，就讓雷霆一夜長大，從娃娃兵搖身一變成總冠軍競爭者。
And that’s what’s really dogged Jeff Green for his entire pro career. He’s just never fit. His excellent (at times, anyway) perimeter defense and his lack of big rebounding numbers would suggest that he’s more of a small forward than a power forward, but he’s never played on a team that didn’t already have one of the best small forwards of the 21st century on it. His stats say that he’s better the more minutes he gets — Doc Rivers played him the entire first half against Minnesota, as if to test whether there was any kind of breaking point to the correlation — but he can’t get those minutes without playing a role that seemingly leaves his team compromised in some other area. It makes sense that his production would begin to explode as his high-usage teammates would gradually fall to injury. Finally: Minutes and shots enough at last.
真正困擾格林職業生涯的是，他似乎從來沒有融入過球隊，他出色的外圍防守(至少有時候是)和缺少的籃板更說明他比起大前鋒更像是小前鋒，但是他的每個隊伍裡都有21世紀最好的小前鋒之一，他的統計數據說明出賽越久他打得更好，瑞佛斯讓他在對灰狼隊的比賽中打滿了整個上半場，似乎在測試和此理論相關的臨界點。除非其他隊友妥協，不然他不可能獲得那麼上場時間和角色，因此，當他高使用率的隊友都受傷無法出賽時，他的貢獻激增就說得通了，他得到了足夠的時間和出手權。
It’s really been quite breathtaking to watch Jeff Green be truly unleashed on the NBA. Of course, it started in one of those reserve games, when he helped save the Celtics’ season by shutting down LeBron James in overtime during the emotional C’s victory over the Heat on the day news about Rondo’s season-ending injury leaked. Then the true breakout came in the teams’ rematch, where Green shredded the Heat for a career-high 43 in arguably the greatest challenge to Miami’s endless winning streak until the Bulls snapped it for good. As surprising as Green’s excellence was both times, it didn’t look unnatural. With his length, athleticism, shooting touch and driving ability, there was really no reason why he shouldn’t be one of just a handful of players on Earth with the potential to play the role of a true LeBron nemesis.
能看到格林在NBA舞台上釋放他的能量是令人興奮的，當然這一切都開始於一場替補出賽，當時朗多剛傳出賽季報銷的消息，格林幫助球隊在延長賽中鎖住詹姆斯而贏得了對熱火這場振奮人心的勝利。 而真正的爆發發生在兩隊再次碰頭的時候，這場比賽格林從熱火身上狂砍職業生涯新高的43分，這或許是公牛終結熱火連勝前，熱火最大的考驗。即使這兩次格林的表現都有如神助，但這一切卻發生得非常自然，對於格林的長臂、運動能力，投籃手感和突破能力，他沒有理由不夠潛力不能成為這星球上少數的詹姆斯剋星之一。
Even amidst the haywire, Nellyball-reminiscent play of the recent Celtics, in just about every start Green’s made since those two games, there have been at least a couple of moments that give you flashes back to those two games, where Green alternately played the unstoppable force and the immovable object. A falling-away three to hit the buzzer. A layup drive too long and strong to be challenged by anyone. A defensive stand on the perimeter that forces a long fadeaway two. C’s announcer Tommy Heinsohn seems as stunned and perplexed by it as anyone — the awe and incredulity was obvious in his voice on the call last night after a Green dime to a diving Shavlik Randolph in the pick-and-roll: “Nice pass by Green … hey, Green can pass the ball, too! He’s … he’s gota lot of all-around skills!”
即便在最近搖擺不定的塞爾提克當中，格林在最近的先發比賽中總會有幾個鏡頭讓你回想到那兩場比賽中的是不可擋，這可能是個向後仰的壓哨三分，可能是個太高太壯無法阻擋的上籃，可能是個穩健的外圍防守迫使對方後仰跳投。塞爾提克的解說員Tommy Heinsohn和其他任何人一樣震驚困惑，在昨晚檔拆後妙傳給藍道夫後，Heinsohn帶著敬畏卻難以確定的聲音說 “格林的妙傳，嘿! 他也能傳球!! 他，他技術十分的全面!!”
But the coming out party has to end sometime for Jeff Green. Paul Pierce isn’t sidelined more than day-to-day, and presumably, Kevin Garnett will be back at some point, forcing the question of whether it’ll be Starter Jeff Green or Reserve Jeff Green we see in the first round of the playoffs. Will Doc dare attempt a Pierce-Green-Garnett frontcourt? Will Green’s excellence be maintained in decreased minutes, if not a bench role? And is all of this a small-sample-size mirage, and once 10 starts for Boston becomes 20 or 30, will Green’s stats and level of play sag back down to the underwhelming levels we’d come to expect from him? I don’t know the answers to any of these, but I’ll absolutely watch every Boston game for the rest of the season, even as the games themselves get less and less meaningful, to find out.
但是格林的高出手情況總要結束的，皮爾斯隨時可能會復出，想必賈奈特也可能在某一天復出，這會讓我們在季後賽第一輪看到底會是「先發格林」還是「替補格林」? 瑞佛斯敢不敢嘗試皮爾斯-格林-賈奈特的前場呢? 如果繼續先發，格林是否能在減少出場時間的情況下保持優異的表現? 還是說這只是曇花一現，在先發10場、20場甚至30場格林的數據會滑落回當初我們不看好的那樣? 我不曉得這些問題的答案，但我絕對會看完波士頓剩下來的比賽來找出答案，即便剩下來的比賽已經沒有太多的意義。
And just watching Green, the man himself, is nearly as fascinating as watching his on-court production. I’ve always had a reflexive, deep sympathy for players whose faces seem to wear the trials and tribulations of their entire life and career — I think FreeDarko once described Tracy McGrady’s face as “dripping with humanity,” and that’s probably why I believe it to be one of the NBA’s greatest personal tragedies that he never made it out of the first round of the playoffs. Green has maybe the most expressive face since T-Mac, a sensitive, almost Charlie Brown-ish mug through which you can see the lines of his years of letdowns, of media and fan abuse, and lest we forget, of health scares, as the heart surgery he faced at the beginning of last season undoubtedly marked a far greater test of courage and character than anything his rocky NBA career has provided him. Along with his unassuming-but-striking name — made doubly interesting by his playing in Boston — it adds an extra level of perceived complexity to an already fascinating player.
只是看著格林，看著他本人，就幾乎如同看他在場上表現一般迷人。我總是對那些能夠從臉上看到整個職業生涯的嘗試和苦難的球員充滿憐惜和同情。我認為正是FreeDarko對T-Mac面容”充滿人性光輝”的描述，讓我相信他從沒衝出季後賽第二輪是NBA最大的個人悲劇。格林或許有著既T-Mac之後最有表現力的面容了，敏感，帶著查理布朗式的天然呆，卻可以看到他多年的失意、媒體和球迷的諷刺，對被遺忘的恐懼和健康的威脅所留下的條條傷痕，以及上個賽季面對比起整個NBA崎嶇生涯更需要勇氣面對的心臟手術的痕跡。再加上他平凡卻醒目的名字，讓他在波士頓打球更加有意義，這讓一個令人著迷的球員更加的難以捉摸。
In the end, it’s the enigmatic NBA players that get us. As a Sixers fan, I love both Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner, but while the consistently excellent Holiday makes my heart go pitter-patter, it’s the hot-and-cold, feast-or-famine Turner whose successes and failures I truly live and die with. The promise of potential perpetually unrealized, of something lurking beneath the surface that pops out for a moment before seeming to disappear forever, is an unmatched intrigue in this league, and being around for the rare moments where these enigmas appear to finally unveil themselves is about as great a thrill as sports has to offer. Nobody in basketball has a story quite like Jeff Green’s, and nobody in basketball is as interesting right now as it moves into its next chapter.
最後，這是個像謎一般的NBA球員帶給我們的，作為一個76人球迷我愛哈特戴和透納，但是即使哈勒戴穩定的出色讓我的心臟碰碰跳，透納那時冷時熱的手感，時好時壞的表現以及捉摸不定的成功或失敗的結局在真正讓我欲生欲死。正如曇花般，破土綻放後稍縱即逝，有些人的潛力也許永遠也無法被開發出來，這就是聯盟無與倫比的謎團，之後，在稀少的時刻中，這些謎團會自然而然的揭開神祕的面紗，這就是體育能夠帶來的最大刺激吧? 在籃球界裡，沒有人的故事像格林一樣，而在NBA進入下一個篇章時也沒有人比他更有趣了。
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