Philadelphia 76ers: Danny Green should return to the starting lineup

Eventually, the Philadelphia 76ers would love to start Matisse Thybulle.

He’s an incredibly impactful on-ball defender, a crafty tactician who baits unsuspecting ball handlers into bad decisions, and an absolute artist in the passing game, where he picks up steals and deflections like few others.

But on offense? Thybulle is still sort of a disaster.

Sure, his points per game are up, sitting around a career-high 6.4 points per game on 4.9 shots from the field, but he remains a woefully inefficient outside shooter who is quite literally being treated like Ben Simmons on the offensive end of the court.

Need proof? Look no further than the Sixers’ 20th game of the season, a 6 pm romp at the Wells Fargo Center versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. When on the court with the starters, Thybulle would routinely find himself unguarded, with his man inching further and further into the paint to give Joel Embiid a hard time.

For those who care about advanced statistics, that particular lineup finished out the game with a -18.6 net rating, which is very, very bad.

While Thybulle may eventually develop a lethal outside shot, or at least one consistent enough to keep opposing defenders honest, for now, he’s far more effective as a defensive sixth man coming off the bench than a consistent starter who has to weather the ebb and flow of a game for 32-plus minutes of action in any given game.

Fortunately, there’s a solution; get Danny Green back in the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting lineup.

Green gives the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting lineup their best chance to succeed.

Danny Green is old by NBA standards.

At 34, he’s tied for the 21st-oldest player in the NBA alongside players like Mike Conley and Wayne Ellington, according to Statmuse, and his 13 NBA seasons are by far the most of any player on the Philadelphia 76ers today.

And yet, despite the length of his teeth, Doc Rivers has been relying on Green like he’s still a member of the San Antonio Spurs, serving as the team’s top of the key defender in the starting five, and drawing far more challenging assignments than in the season prior.

While Green’s average points per game are down from 9.5 in 2020-21 to eight even in 2021-22, his 3 point shooting efficiency is up to 43.1 percent on five, and he’s stealing 1.8 passes per game versus 1.3 in the season prior.

Oh yeah, and did I mention he’s doing so in 4.8 fewer minutes per game? Because he is.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Green has the 12th-highest total RAPTOR rating of any player in the NBA regardless of position, with a defensive rating just two points below Matisse Thybulle’s incredible 4.6 Defensive RAPTOR, and an offensive efficiency right up there with Zach LeVine and Alex Caruso, statistically speaking, of course.

Green has the highest overall RAPTOR rating of any player on the Sixers, .1 higher than even Joel Embiid, and is one of only five players who have a positive rating alongside “The Process,” Thybulle, Georges Niang, and Tyrese Maxey, who supplements the third-worst defense on the team among qualifying players with the third-best offensive efficiency.

Throw that all together, and what do you have? A player in the middle of an outstanding season, albeit one that’s been hampered by a pair of multiple game absences.

With Green sandwiched between Seth Curry and Tobias Harris, the Sixers would have pretty good wing spacing for Maxey and Embiid to operate and the optionally to cycle in Thybulle for his usual 26 minutes of action when the situation permits. Opposing teams won’t be able to double Maxey or Embiid without freeing up a good shooter on the wings, and the offense will be able to dictate their own decisions instead of having to adjust to a blitzing style where congesting the paint has no real consequences.

After watching Game 20 versus Minnesota, that sounds nice.

Maybe one day Matisse Thybulle will fully supplant Danny Green in the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting lineup. Maybe he’ll be able to shoot well enough to actually play his natural shooting guard position without it being ironic, and opposing teams will have to respect his outside shot as much as, say, Furkan Korkmaz. But for now, DG14 gives the team their best chance to win and thus should retain the small forward role until a better option is brought in via trade to alleviate some of his responsibilities.