It wasn’t the kind of move that made waves or grabbed headlines, but the Philadelphia 76ers‘ move to re-sign Danny Green was a big one for the team’s title hopes. Never mind the fact that they’ll be paying him $20 million over the next two years as a career nine-point scorer in his mid-30s.
For his part, The Athletic’s John Hollinger believes Green is worth that and then some. At the start of free agency, Hollinger used his BORD$ metric to assign real-dollar values to the NBA’s top free agents. Green’s number was a surprising $19.3 million.
But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.
Clearly, Green’s contributions on the court are worth more than his relatively meager stat line would lead one to believe. There’s a reason Green has played a key role in three title runs with three different teams, after all.
Over the weekend, Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale compiled his list of the most underrated players in the Association by team. And while Ben Simmons is a whole lot better than his detractors would leave you to believe, Green was his choice for Philly.
Really, though, he was the obvious choice.
B/R: Green Is the Most Underrated Sixer
Favale focused on Green’s championship efforts while explaining his pick. In doing so, he made a strong case for the 12-year vet’s place among the league’s most underrated ballers.
“There is a reason — plenty of them, actually — why he’s been on three separate championship teams. He’s good. He plays defense. He’s shooting 40.1% from deep for his career in the regular season and 37.8% from long range in the playoffs,” he wrote.
Topflight 3-and-D guys are in high demand in the modern NBA and Green continues to be one of the best.
As noted in the piece, he has suffered through some offensive droughts during postseason play. However, Green’s defensive prowess always shines through and it was sorely missed during the back half of Philly’s second-round series with the Atlanta Hawks. Even if Green did struggle to contain Trae Young in the games that he did play.
“Just so we’re clear: ‘Danny Green couldn’t guard Trae Young’ is not an adequate barometer for his stopping power. Scant few can authentically disrupt Young. Green may be older, at 34, and slower than he used to be. He still defends. And hits threes.”
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Green Finally Set to Receive His 2019 Championship Ring
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA schedule and the Toronto Raptors’ temporary move to Tampa, Green has yet to return to the Great White North and hasn’t received his 2019 championship ring. The Raptors offered to send it to him, but Green balked out of a desire to celebrate the win in Toronto.
“I’d rather do it in front of the fans in the city where I played, where I spent a great year,” he said on an episode of The Green Room. “I told them me and Phil [Handy] would prefer to just do it in the city when we’re able to play in arenas again. They wanted to do one here, and then do another one there too, and I said it’s not necessary, you guys can just hold on to it.”
Now, it looks as though he’s finally set to have his big night with the Raptors faithful, more than two years after he helped Toronto defeat the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals. According to The Athletic’s Eric Koreen, he’ll get his ring on December 28 when the Sixers play the Raptors in Canada.
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