Green credits Amir Johnson for his improvements finishing plays

Josh Green credits the noticeable improvement in his game around the basket to former NBA player Amir Johnson.

“This summer I worked with Amir Johnson a lot with finishing,” Green said after Tuesday’s practice. “He’s been working with the G League team out in Vegas and he had a big part in the (Toronto) Raptors’ success, and he’s been a big part of it and was an impact guy as well.”

Johnson, 35, played in the NBA from 2005-19, including for the Raptors for six seasons. The 6-9, 253-pound forward also played for the NBA’s G League Ignite from 2020 through last season.

“I feel like I’ve always had a pretty good first step and I think the first thing we always work on is continuing to work on that just getting better and better and better,” said Green, who is in his third season with the Mavericks. “I feel like my footwork around the basket has gotten better.

“If I do it wrong, Amir is blocking it and he’s going to talk a lot of (noise). I really appreciate what he did.”

Green said when he was tired and in the middle of his workout with Johnson., his trainer told him he needed to score 10 times against Johnson.

“It sounds easy, but It’s challenging and (Johnson is) trying to kill you,” Green said. “He’s trying to block everything.

“I realized I need to use my strength. I realized if I jump into somebody it’s hard to vertically challenge that. My goal is going right through somebody’s chest, and it’s hard to do anything against it. I think the biggest thing is body control and just making it happen.”

And thanks to an assist this summer from Johnson, Green has been busy making it happen this season. The 6-5, 200-pound guard is averaging five points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals in just 15.5 minutes while being an energizer bunny for the Mavs.

The Mavs appreciate the way Green has been able to raise his level of play this season while also proving to be a key player in their rotation.

“He’s playing great,” coach Jason Kidd said. “He deserves more minutes and we’ve got to figure out how to get him more minutes. But he‘s done everything we’ve asked. He’s one of the guys we believe — the 50-50 balls — he’s going to come up with them.”

HARDY IN THE G LEAGUE: In order for him to get some more minutes under his belt, the Mavs assigned rookie guard Jaden Hardy to play for the Texas Legends of the NBA G League.

“He’s in training camp right now with the Legends,” coach Jason Kidd said, “and hopefully he gets minutes and take advantage of that opportunity.”

Hardy only played in two of the Mavs’ first six games. He played the last six minutes of mop-up duty during the 137-96 blowout win over Memphis on Oct. 22 and was scoreless while going 0-of-3 from the field.

Hardy also received four minutes in the second quarter of last Saturday’s game against Oklahoma City. In that game he was scoreless and was 0-of-2 from the floor.

“We wanted to get some minutes before he went down, so Oklahoma City was the game for that opportunity,” Kidd said. “It actually worked out the way we scripted it, but we wanted him to get some minutes with the big league before he went down.”

The Legends open their 50-game season with back-to-back games in Austin on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Their first home game is Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Frisco against Birmingham.

After he came straight out of high school last year, Hardy averaged 17.7 points while playing for the G League’s Ignite.

DONCIC IN THE POST: Obviously, Luka Doncic is absolutely wearing out defenders while leading the NBA in scoring at 36.7 points per game.

But coach Jason Kidd is also impressed with his super star point guard’s ability to command respect in the post.

“That’s another luxury to have Luka be able to post up, to be able to play out of the post,” Kidd said. “Not just score (in the post), but be able to play make.

“I think that’s, again, one of his strengths is to be able to fine cutters. He did that well in the last game (Sunday against Orlando).”

Then again, Doncic has proven to be effective no matter where he is on the court. But the impact he’s enjoying with his post game gives defenders something else to think about.

Kidd said one intangible he’s looking for is to place Doncic on the post so he can “be able to run the offense from there where we can still get looks at threes or cutters for layups, or be the last and first option is to look for him to be aggressive to score.”

BENCH IS SOLID: The Mavs are extremely happy with the play of their bench in general and in Christian Wood and Tim Hardaway Jr. in particular.

Wood is second on the team in scoring (16.7 points) and rebounding (8.2 rebounds) — while coming off the bench. Meanwhile, Hardaway also is a hot-shot performer off the bench, where he’s fourth on the team in scoring with 14.4 points per outing.

Those two have helped the Mavs stay afloat while the starters receive some much-needed rest.

“We’ve got quite a few guys on that bench who can go big when you talk about Timmy and C-Wood,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Those guys can fill it up in a hurry.”

Wood started the season with three consecutive games with 23 or more points, while Hardaway scored 21 points in 27 minutes during Sunday’s 114-105 win over the Orlando Magic.

“You look at what Timmy did for us in the last game coming off the bench,” Kidd said. “Someone said we have the No. 1 offense in the league, (and) we have a lot of guys who can score.

“We’ve got to get better on the defensive side. But it’s nice to have that luxury to have multiple guys come off the bench who can score.”

BRIEFLY: Josh Green came to Monday’s post-practice interview session carrying a football from the Australian League Football. Born in Sydney, Australia, Green said the AFL “was my main sport.” He said he changed from a big-time AFL player to a basketball player,, “When I moved here (to the United States), because there’s no Australian football (in the USA).”. .The Mavs 3-3) host the surprising Utah Jazz on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Jazz, who practically cleaned house over the summer while trading away All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, are third in the Western Conference with a 6-2 record.

Twitter: @DwainPrice