After Being Cut in China and Demoted to D-League, Gerald Green is Resilient

December 21, 2014

NEW YORK - A missed shot is certainly not going to stop Suns guard Gerald Green from shooting again.

A mistake will not deter him from trying to immediately make up for it.

So his bad games are going to last in his head about as long as a bubble floating in the air.

Green went from making 1 of 6 3-pointers against Detroit to hitting 3 of 7 against Oklahoma City. He went from missing his first 11 3s against Milwaukee to making 3 of 5 at Charlotte. So missing his first five 3s in Saturday's win against New York did not have a carry-over effect to him making a key fourth-quarter 3 or today's game at Washington.

"I've hit rock-bottom," Green said of his career road that included being cut in China and going to the D-League. "If I've gotten to this point, nothing is going to make me not do what I need to do. I'm never going to stop because I had a bad game. I'm never going to stop because somebody thinks that I can't do something. I'm going to always play the way I feel I should play, because I wouldn't have got to here if I felt like I couldn't."

Green has been pulled from each of the past two games in the fourth quarter so that the Suns could go to the three-point guard lineup. Each move followed some Green missteps too. It was two wild misses in Charlotte, and then it was his sixth turnover of the New York game.

Dragic's future

Suns guard Goran Dragic left open the possibility of going to any team in free agency when talking before Saturday's game and stuck to the idea after the game when asked again about being an unrestricted free agent in July.

"It's still early to talk about that," Dragic said. "Right now, I want to be 100 percent focused on the team and try to help the team and players. In the offseason, I'm going to probably sit down with my family first and with my agent and try to explore all the options. From there, I'll try to choose the one best for me."

Because of the Suns' three-point guard situation, his move to an off-ball role and his expiring contract, the possibility of trading Dragic has drawn speculation. He said he would not be distracted by rumors over the next two months of the NBA trade window.

"As an athlete, you need to be focused every game," Dragic said. "That's why, even if there's some trade rumors, I never read those and I never pay attention because that's a really bad thing. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. The only thing I can do is be a good professional and be ready every game and help my teammates."