Josh Green did not arrive in Utah with much fanfare, and that was kind of the point. The Jazz moved him to clear a roster spot and create some cap room, not because he was expected to change the direction of the season. But after the way this year has started, Green has turned into one of the few encouraging developments on the roster.
He hasn’t put up eye-popping numbers, and nobody is going to mistake him for a centerpiece. Still, when Utah needed him to step into the starting lineup last night, he handled the job well enough. That’s been the theme so far: not flashy, not overwhelming, just steady and useful.
That matters more than it might seem for a team still trying to find anything positive to hang onto. Green was part of an NBA Finals team, so he’s not new to meaningful basketball, even if the Jazz are nowhere near that level right now. Early on, he has looked like someone who can help once the group around him gets healthier.
The numbers back that up. Utah has posted a plus-22 net rating with Green on the floor.
Among the team’s regular role players, he’s the only one with a positive on-court net rating, sitting at plus-four. Everyone else in that group has been in the negative.
That doesn’t mean Green is going to rescue the Jazz season. That’s not his job. But for a late-offseason trade that barely registered at the time, he’s starting to look like a pretty sharp piece of business.
Utah got him for a disappointing lottery pick in Cody Williams and John Konchar, a player Minnesota waived. On paper, that’s a tidy move for the front office.
The bigger question now is what comes next. Green is doing exactly what Utah asks of him, and the Jazz are smart enough not to push him outside his lane.
If the team gets healthy and starts to turn things around, his expiring contract could become useful in another way. A deal like that is the kind of thing teams notice if they decide they want to make a bigger swing.
For now, though, Utah has to climb out of its own mess first. If Green keeps playing like this, the Jazz at least know one thing: he won’t be part of the problem.
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