Report: Ex-Wizards F Jeff Green, Jazz Agree to 1-Year, $2.5M Contract
July 2, 2019
The Utah Jazz added a playoff-tested veteran to their wing rotation Tuesday when they agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal with Jeff Green, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Green, who spent the 2018-19 season with the Washington Wizards, entered the league out of Georgetown as the No. 5 overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft. While the Boston Celtics selected him, they promptly traded him to the Seattle SuperSonics before he ever stepped foot on the court.
Boston acquired him via a separate trade during the 2010-11 season, and he was a formidable starter and wing scorer for much of his early career on the Celtics and Sonics/Oklahoma City Thunder. In fact, he averaged 15 or more points per game four different times from the 2008-09 campaign through 2014-15 even though he missed the 2011-12 season because of heart surgery.
Since then, Green has been a journeyman and played for the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers and Wizards.
The Georgetown product has bounced around on a number of one-year contracts (Orlando in 2016-17, Cleveland in 2017-18 and Washington in 2018-19) and appeared in 77 games for the Wizards last season.
He averaged 12.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists a night while shooting a solid 34.7 percent from three-point range for Washington. It was a solid showing after he helped lead the Cavaliers to the 2018 NBA Finals with 19 points in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics.
"I would love to come back," Green said of potentially re-signing with Washington in April, per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. "Great set of guys on this team. I loved playing with Brad [Beal], John [Wall]."
Alas, that will not be the case for the wingman, who will be 33 years old throughout the 2019-20 campaign. While he isn't someone who will singlehandedly carry his new team, he can provide a scoring spark off the bench or in a starting role and has 60 playoff games on his resume.
He will look to add to that total this coming season while taking some of the offensive pressure off Utah's shoulders.