Danny Green: The Spurs Must Re-Sign Him

By Andrew Snyder | May 17, 2015

Jan 20, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (14) during the game against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports /

Some things are certain in this life. Peanut butter and chocolate taste delicious together, any Vin Diesel trip to The Gap will end with him buying at least 10 extra small black T-shirts, and the San Antonio Spurs are going to re-sign Kawhi Leonard this summer.

Those things are just true and nothing will make them untrue. Unless, of course, the Spurs somehow don’t re-sign Leonard, but I’m not prepared to live in a universe where that is a reality.

I’ve dubbed this “The Summer of Uncertainty,” and while the rest of the roster could change, Leonard will almost certainly be back in San Antonio this summer. However, the fate of his partner on the opposite wing, Danny Green, is a bit murky. Will Green be back with the Spurs next season or will he seek more money on the open market?

Green’s story is an inspiring one. After a four-year career and a National Championship at North Carolina, he was selected in the second round of the 2009 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. After his rookie season the Cavs waived him, making him a free agent.

After signing with San Antonio in March 2011, Green’s career took off.

He went from Cleveland castoff to an important role player on the Spurs machine that made back-to-back NBA Finals appearances and won the 2014 championship. Pretty impressive considering where his career trajectory appeared to be headed.

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Now he is an unrestricted free agent and should be in store for a huge payday. Spurs fans should hope that that their team is ready to open up the check book so that they have some semblance of continuity in 2015-2016, no matter what happens with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.

Last season Green scored a career high 11.7 points per game and shot 41.8 percent from three-point range. He has now shot over 40 percent from outside in four consecutive seasons, giving San Antonio the perfect floor spacer for their ball-moving juggernaut of an offense.

He may also be the second best wing defender in the NBA. When paired together, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard make up a monstrous defensive duo that should make LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and any other wing superstar have nightmares.

Their defense to offense fast breaks are often a thing of beauty.

The Spurs had the second best defensive rating in the NBA this season, which would be hard to fathom if Marco Belinelli or some run of the mill shooting guard had been getting Green’s minutes.

Green’s on the court, off the court numbers show the impact he made on both San Antonio’s offense and defense. If you follow my coverage of this team, you know how much I love this type of stat. How much do you help your team when you are on the floor? How much do they suffer when you aren’t there? It may not reveal everything, but it absolutely says something significant about that particular player’s importance.

When Green left the court, San Antonio’s opponent’s offensive rating jumped from 101.7 to 103 and their effective field goal percentage jumped from 47.8 percent to 49.4 percent. The difference is even more drastic on the other end of the court.

With Green on the floor, the Spurs held an offensive rating of 111.1 this season. Without Green that rating fell to 105.8 and their effective field goal percentage fell from 53 percent to 50.1 percent. So, does Green have a measurable impact on San Antonio’s success? You bet he does.

When paired with Leonard he’s even better. That pairing played 1,189 minutes together this season and had a plus/minus rating of plus 14.8. Is this a pairing you really want to break up?

He is not a superstar. He is not a player that is going to score 20 points per game or sell jerseys. He is a player that you have to have on your team if you’re going to win the NBA championship. What if the Los Angeles Clippers had Green in their starting lineup instead of Matt Barnes? I’d venture a guess that they wouldn’t be struggling to take down the Houston Rockets. That series would be over.

Guessing exactly what the Spurs will do is a fool’s errand. The fact that they re-signed players like Boris Diaw and Patrick Mills last offseason seem to indicate that they value continuity. Will that that philosophy still be in place when it’s time to pay Green?

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