Philadelphia 76ers: Danny Green has found new life under brighter lights

From James Harden‘s first game with the Philadelphia 76ers all the way through the 82nd game of the regular season, Danny Green‘s minutes per game took a dip.

Part of that was by design; Green was moved to the bench in favor of Matisse Thybulle and his minutes per game took a dip as a result. Green also stuffed a finger injury in the Sixers’ March 7th win over the Chicago Bulls that cost him two games and left him limited for the next few contests.

After averaging 28 minutes per game during the 2020-21 season and playing 23 minutes over the first 40 games of the current NBA season, Green’s average minutes per game dipped down under 20 minutes for the final 22 games of the regular season, with the three-time champion playing just 19.6 per game, with a high of 38:33 and a healthy low of just 11:13.

So what gives? Was Green fully washed? Had the 3-and-D wing lost his ability to regularly 3 and also D?

Well, if the Philadelphia 76ers’ last two games are of any indication, the price of UNC might have just been saving his best stuff for when the games matter a whole lot more: The playoffs.

The Philadelphia 76ers are getting vintage DG14 at the best possible time.

If there’s one thing Danny Green is better at than Matisse Thybulle, it’s shooting 3s at a high clip.

Mind you, Thybulle isn’t as bad a 3 point shooter as some may suggest, as since James Harden came to town, the third-year wing out of Washington has drained 38.5 percent of his shots from beyond the arc – on only 1.7 attempts per game – but if two teams are trading leads in a crucial part of the game, it’s a whole lot more comforting to see DG on the wing waiting for an open shot, even at the tender age of 34.

While Thybulle’s defense does come in handy against a team with elite perimeter scorers like the Brooklyn Nets, the Miami Heat, or the Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors aren’t that team. No offense to Fred VanVleet or Gary Trent Jr., but the Raptors win their games with size, length, and versatility, not a ball-dominant guard who wins games with ISO ball. No, in this particular series, having an above-average switchable wing like Green is totally acceptable on the defensive end of the court versus an All-Defense-level performer, which is at least part of the reason why Thybulle has only averaged 14 minutes per game through Games 1 and 2.

The other reason? Well, you’ll see in Games 3 and 4.

With Green back in the starting lineup, the Sixers have five players who are above-average or better 3 points shooters and can keep the field perfectly spaced for whichever player happens to have the ball in their hands at the time. This has allowed the Sixers to seemingly always have one shooter open thanks to the myriad of different double-teams Nick Nurse has deployed on Harden, Joel Embiid, and even Tyrese Maxey, which has, in turn, allowed the trio to absolutely feast on their foes to the tune of 45.5 points per game off of assists, which is good for 37.4 percent of the team’s total points per game.

To his credit, Green has played that role very well, as 5.5 of his seven attempts from beyond the arc in each of the series’s first two-game have come of the catch-and-shoot variety, and 80 percent of his made shots overall have been assisted.

This new wrinkle to the Sixers’ offense has opened up everything up and turned Thybulle into a defensive sixth man coming off the bench, which is rather unconventional, but hey, what about this particular season has been conventional? When a player holds out for the better part of eight months and sues a team for $20 million, things aren’t exactly business as usual.

Will Danny Green remain in the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting lineup once their series versus the Toronto Raptors is over? Only time will tell; assuming the Sixers come out of this round the victors, I would assume Doc Rivers will reevaluate his rotation based on who the team’s round two opponent ends up being. But after coasting through the first month-plus of the regular season, it’s clear the Sixers have stumbled into a rotation that works, and unless something radically changes, the sticking with DG in the starting lineup and a bench of Matisse Thybulle, Paul Reed, Georges Niang, and Shake Milton is probably their best course of action moving forward.