Philadelphia 76ers: A Danny Green-Brett Brown reunion just makes sense
If the Philadelphia 76ers want to add some championship pedigree to their roster, a reunion between Brett Brown and Danny Green just makes sense.
The 2019 NBA Draft is about a month away, but that doesn’t mean the Philadelphia 76ers‘ player personnel department shouldn’t still have their eyes fixed on the NBA Finals.
While conventional wisdom would suggest that the series is more less to wash for the Sixers, as they appear to be a longshot destination for any of the Ks – Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, or Kevin Durant – but there are some players who would be fantastic fits in Philadelphia when their current contracts expire at the end of June.
My personal favorite? Toronto starting shooting guard Danny Green.
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While Green didn’t play particularly well in the Raptors’ series against the Milwaukee Bucks, or really at all this postseason, he’s a fantastic 3-and-D wing who could pay major dividends as a veteran presence Brett Brown‘s starting five.
And speaking of Brown, the two actually have a pretty extensive history together from their shared time in San Antonio.
Initially selected 45th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Green was waived after one season before bouncing around the developmental league before joining the Spurs full-time in March of 2011. From there, Green flourished under Brown’s tutelage, transforming himself from a bench afterthought into the team’s starting shooting guard for the better part of seven straight seasons.
Green played so well that he all but singlehandedly shifted Manu Ginobili into a sixth man role for the back half of his Hall-of-Fame bound-career, a pretty impressive feat.
Though Brown ultimately left before Green won his first NBA championship, a campaign that earned the North Carolina product a four-year, $40 million deal, the duo have always seemed admired of each other; exchanging nice handshakes whenever the two teams faced off.
And now, after whatever happens in the NBA Finals, Green will be heading the open market for the first time since 2015, presumably in the hopes of continuing to compete for championships into his 11th-year in the league
He can without a doubt still do that in Philadelphia.
A traditional non-ball-dominant guard in the throwback sense, Green’s skillset fits pretty perfectly into the NBA’s current 3-and-D trend, where non-facilitators are tasked with perching on the wings offensively and covering the wings on the defensive end of the court.
The owner of a 40.4 career 3-point shooting percentage, Green has actually gotten better over the last few seasons as a pure shooter, capping things off with an incredible 45.5 percent in 2019 for easily his best mark as a pro.
For those keeping track at home, that’s the second-highest clip of any play in the league, and 5.4 percent higher than the Sixers’ best 3-point shooter, Mike Scott.
As we’ve seen in the Bucks-Raptors series, surrounding a supersize playmaker, like Ben Simmons or Giannis Antetokounmpo, with talented outside shooters is a surefire way to get into an offensive set and make a team unguardable across the board. Though Green has almost exclusively played shooting guard as a pro, he can conceivably play shooting guard or small forward in the Sixers scheme, as they are basically are asked to fill the same role as an outside shooter on the wings.
Furthermore, Green finished out the 2018-19 season as the best defensive shooting guard in the league according to ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus, beating out Jimmy Butler by almost .5 (4.99 vs. 4.58). While he’s not the playmaker, shot creator, or general offensive threat that Butler has transformed into since being selected 30th overall out of Marquette, he’s more than capable of being a team’s fourth or fifth offensive option; essentially the role he’d be asked to play in Philly.
Next. Raptors advancing to NBA Finals another crushing blow for 76ers. dark
Will he come cheap? Probably not after having a career year with the Raptors, but much like the decision to sign J.J. Redick a few seasons ago, reuniting Brett Brown with an experienced role player like Danny Green could pay serious dividends for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019, and keep the team competitive if they lose out one, two, or even all three of their free agent starters.