Hoosier State of Mind
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Indiana Basketball: Devonte Green’s path to the NBA

By Trevor Gersmehl

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - MARCH 04: Devonte Green #11 of the Indiana Hoosiers reacts after making a three pointer in the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half at Assembly Hall on March 04, 2020 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - MARCH 04: Devonte Green #11 of the Indiana Hoosiers reacts after making a three pointer in the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half at Assembly Hall on March 04, 2020 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MARCH 11: Devonte Green #11 of the Indiana Hoosiers reacts after making a shot during a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the first round of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 11, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MARCH 11: Devonte Green #11 of the Indiana Hoosiers reacts after making a shot during a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the first round of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 11, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Current Draft Stock: Undrafted

Devonte Green is absent from any draft boards available to find. He was good enough to enter the draft process as a rising senior before returning to school but was unable to do enough in his senior season to put himself on any mock drafts.

Likelihood of being drafted: Extremely Low

Green’s career at Indiana certainly gave us some shining moments, but it also provided us with plenty to critique. Unfortunately for Green, he is the only player in this series who does not have the benefit of coming back another season (or more) in order to boost his draft stock. Would he have gotten drafted had there not been a coaching change midway through his career? We’ll never know.

Areas of improvement

Obviously, Green is a gifted scorer, and — in my opinion — an underrated defender. However, he played like a loose cannon, a bull in a china shop, or any other idiom you could think of to relay being out of control. Some unknown combination of selfishness and an extremely low basketball IQ resulted in Green taking extremely difficult shots. It wasn’t all on his shoulders — at times his offense was the only thing keeping Indiana afloat — but after playing four years at the highest level of college, Green will start his professional career not knowing how to play team basketball.

It’s a lot of little things that will turn scouts off. Green often settled for a step back three after getting the edge on his defender. If you beat your defender and your name is not James Harden, you should always attack the rim. Green would stupidly step back for three and literally lose separation from his defender by going back into him. Things like this are plentiful in Green’s game.

Justin Smith has all the same problems with IQ, but has a much better chance at being drafted than Green because of his superb athleticism. Green was not blessed with the athleticism to overcome his lagging IQ. Although I hope for his sake he fixes these shortcomings, I have very little confidence he will given what I watched at Indiana. You can always add skills. Adding IQ is a lot harder.

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