<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> All Trail Blazers fans need to know about rookie point guard Taurean Green is this: Coach Nate McMillan, who is notoriously tough on point guards, likes him.</p> In fact, he gushes about him.</p> "To me, he is a player that I tried to be," said McMillan, who played point guard for the SuperSonics for 12 seasons. "He's a guy who says, 'I'm not going to say anything to the coach; my play is going force you to think about me. You know what I can do and if you don't play me, it's on you. So, either you find a way to get me out there or you will be thinking about me on the sidelines.' He's been good. Really good."</p> So good that McMillan plans on using Green extensively this season, including in tonight's exhibition game against Sacramento at the Rose Garden.</p> Green, who is generously listed as 6 feet, has shown that he is a dogged defender and steady ball handler. McMillan also considers him to be the best three-point shooter among the Blazers guards.</p> Green has spent much of preseason practices taking shifts with the first unit, and McMillan said he is toying with the idea of using Green as the catalyst for an up-tempo second unit. And McMillan has gone as far as to say he may use Green at the end of games because he foresees him as the perfect offensive complement to Brandon Roy.</p> "Right now -- and it's early -- I will probably end up finding a way to get him on the floor," McMillan said. "We may be small, and we may have to play zone when he is in there, but from what he has done so far, I think you have to try and find a way to get him out there."</p> Really, it shouldn't be a surprise that Green is excelling. He has won at every level -- winning a national Amateur Athletic Union championship when he was 10, a high school state championship as a sophomore in Florida, and two NCAA championships with the University of Florida as the starting point guard. On last year's title team, he led the Gators in scoring and assists.</p> But while Florida teammates Al Horford (Atlanta), Corey Brewer (Minnesota) and Joakim Noah (Chicago) were lottery picks, Green slipped deep into the second round before the Blazers plucked him at No. 52.</p> "I guess it's because I'm short," Green said laughing.</div></p> Source: Oregon Live</p>
