Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly to sign Danny Green; how does he fit?
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Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and thelandondemand.com. You can find him on Twitter at @RealDCunningham.The Cleveland Cavaliers are adding a multi-time NBA champion to their roster, according to multiple reports.
Veteran wing Danny Green is set to join the team after reaching a buyout agreement with the Houston Rockets. Green was traded to Houston on Thursday from the Memphis Grizzlies. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the news.
Green is in his 14th NBA season, beginning his career with the Cavaliers as a rookie back in the 2009-10 season. Since then, he’s spent eight seasons in San Antonio, one season with the Toronto Raptors, a season with the Lakers, two seasons with Philadelphia, and was with the Grizzlies this season.
Green suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during the playoffs with the 76ers last May. He returned to game action earlier this month, playing in three games prior to the deadline.
Shortly after the trade deadline, Cavs President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman was asked about how aggressive the organization would be pursuing players on the buyout market.
“I promise you character is really, really important for us,” Altman said. “That locker room is -- it's incredible. And I don't know other locker rooms, I'm not in other locker rooms, but I know what we have going on is a rare thing where guys love playing for each other, it's genuine. There's relationships there, they care about each other. If there's a person there that can add to that, we'll do it. If not, if it's a toss, if it's a jump ball, we're good.”
There are times when a player that’s bought out is done so because they’re not a fit in the locker room with what a team is trying to do. That’s not the case with Green. Throughout the years in the NBA he’s been very highly regarded as a teammate and locker room presence. The case of Green isn’t one that’s likely needed to be talked about very long for the Cavs.
As for the fit on the basketball court, Green is best known in his career as a 3-point specialist and solid defender. Throughout the course of his career, he is shooting 39.9 percent from 3-point range on 4.8 attempts per game. That type of addition for the Cavs will certainly be a welcomed one. When he’s on the floor opposing defenses will have to respect him as a shooter, thus creating more room to operate for the other four players on the floor.
Not including the three games this season he played for Memphis, Green has shot at least 41 percent on corner 3-pointers in every season since 2015-16. That season is just one of two seasons in his career in which he’s been below 40 percent from that spot on the court, and has three seasons shooting 45 percent of better from the corners, according to Cleaning the Glass.
He’s put up that type of production while doing so on a high volume. Last season, Green was in the 100th percentile for frequency of corner 3-pointers, attempting 45 percent of his total shots from there per Cleaning the Glass. Throughout his career, Green has always been among the most frequent corner 3-point shooters, finishing above the 80th percentile in that type of shot every year since 2011-12 except for 2017-18.
The Cavaliers aren’t a bad shooting team from outside. Entering Monday’s action they’re 12th in the NBA in 3-point percentage, which certainly is good enough to get to where they want to go. With that said, there’s no such thing as too much shooting in the NBA.
The question with Green at this point is whether or not he will be able to hold up on the defensive end of the floor. Green has been a plus-defender throughout his career, however he is just eight months removed from a serious knee injury and 35 years old.
With the strength of the Cavs being defense, the Cavs may be able to hide him a bit if they need to. Green likely won’t be taking the kind of defensive assignments he did previously in his career. Part of the reason that the Cavs can make this work is the defensive level in which Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are at as they anchor the back end but also the level that Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland have played as well. Obviously, Isaac Okoro has been stellar as a defender and Green likely won’t be supplanting him in the starting lineup, but does give the Cavs another option at that position.
The biggest thing that Green will give the Cavs and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff is more depth on the wing. That’s been an issue for the team all season, even though Okoro has been really good for the last couple of months, there’s still room for another body in the rotation, especially with the inconsistency that Cedi Osman has shown this season. On nights when Osman is struggling on either end of the floor, that could mean more time for Green.
There may not have been many fits for the Cavaliers on the buyout market, but Green, if healthy, is undoubtedly the best one.
