Danny Green has a pretty impressive career in the NBA.
Sure, he’s never been named to an All-Star game, only has one All-Defensive team appearance to his credit, and will likely be held out of the Hall of Fame baring some late-career heroics, but over 13 seasons, Green has played for five different teams, filled a complementary role alongside some of the best players in the NBA, and has ultimately won three championships with three different teams.
Statistically speaking, Green has a career shooting percentage of 40.0 from deep, and he’s one of the few players in NBA history to record at least 100 steals and 70 blocks in the same season, a feat his teammate Matisse Thybulle has also accomplished last season.
But one thing that hasn’t happened to Green, at least up to this point in his career, is a mid-season trade from one team to another, an accomplishment that is fairly rare for a player midway through Year 13. Granted, he has been traded, multiple times actually, but to this point, it has only happened in the offseason, first from San Antonio to Toronto, then from Los Angeles to OKC, and finally from OKC to the City of Brotherly Love just before the 2020 NBA Draft.
Could that streak continue into Year 14? Potentially so, but not if the Philadelphia 76ers decide to move DG14 this week, either as part of a bigger deal for James Harden or in a smaller deal for another mid-level player.
The Philadelphia 76ers could make or break Green’s trade streak.
As things presently stand, Danny Green is midway through the first season of a two-year, $20 million extension. His contract doesn’t feature a no-trade clause, and regardless of what color jersey he wears at the end of the season, his team, the Philadelphia 76ers or otherwise, will have to either accept or decline a $10 million team option for the 2022-23 season on July 1st of 2022.
Is Green the player he was last season, let alone with the Toronto Raptors back in 2018-19? No, his age is starting to show, and he’s spending less and less time on the court due to a string of minor injuries and a regular season pitch count, but for a team like… well, like pretty much every team in the NBA that isn’t in the trawls of an obvious rebuild, he’s the sort of rotation piece worth having.
For a team like the Brooklyn Nets, who may or may not trade James Harden this week, including Green in a deal alongside Ben Simmons makes a ton of sense, as he can still hit open 3s at a high level and remains an above-average defender who can switch 1-3. While Green alone likely wouldn’t swing a deal one way or another, he’s a much better addition to a deal than simple cap filler and could be a legitimate difference-maker for a team come playoff time, as Sixers fans learned all too well versus Atlanta.
But Green’s value doesn’t solely come in bigger trade packages. No, there are many teams across the NBA who could use a player like Green and would surely trade away a similar player – a fifth starter/sixth man-type – for his services. Could we see a team like the Memphis Grizzlies prioritize shooting over playmaking and swap out, say, Kyle Anderson, for Green in a move that would subsequently free up some playing time for underutilized but recently extended guard De’Anthony Melton, who signed a four-year, $35 million deal back in November of 2020?
Or how about in a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers for a shooter like Luke Kennard? The Clippers just took on a ton of money by shipping Eric Bledsoe, Keon Johnson, Justise Winslow, and 2025 second-round pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for Robert Covington and Norman Powell and exchanging a now semi-redundant player like Kennard, who has been on fire as of late for a two-way wing like Green who they could either waive next summer or retain at a lower cap hit could be an attractive option.
Goodness, one can’t go a day on Twitter.com without seeing some sort of trade suggestion featuring THT of the Los Angeles Lakers. If LeBron James’ squad can’t get a deal done for Jerami Grant, maybe they’d get desperate enough to rebuild their Disney World Championship squad at the expense of a young player with a weird set of skills. I mean hey, I sort of doubt either squad would be interested in such a deal, but hey, you never quite know what’s going to happen at this time of the NBA’s season, as we’ve learned over the past few days.
Will Danny Green still be a member of the Philadelphia 76ers when the team takes the court against the OKC Thunder on Friday night, or will he be on a plane on his way to meet a new team in a new city? Honestly, only Daryl Morey knows the answer to that question. While Green is one of the Sixers’ best locker room guys and a vital cog for both their offense and defense on the court, he’s also one of the team’s better trade chips, who could easily be sold to another GM as more than $10 million in cap filler. If it happens, Green will experience one of the few “news” left in his NBA career, and if not, well, his streak of no mid-season trades will live to fight another season.