On Thursday, fifteen years after the Cleveland Cavaliers selected him with the 46th overall pick in the draft, Danny Green declared his retirement from the NBA.
After having a breakthrough season in 2011–12, Green made 43.6% of his threes overall. He did not obstruct the stars; instead, he made room for them. In the end, he proved to be one of the league’s best defenders by taking on challenging defensive responsibilities and winning All-Defense recognition in 2017. He wasn’t the original “3-and-D guy”; instead, the phrase existed before he and North Carolina won an NCAA championship, but he was the most well-known when it made its way from the blogosphere to the broadcast booth. In certain aspects, Green served as Bruce Bowen’s spiritual heir in San Antonio. Bowen averaged 6.4 points over the course of eight seasons with the organization and had his jersey retired. But offensively, Green was not limited to the corner like Bowen was.
He made threes while in motion, above the break, and during transition. He contested and made deep threes. His unique and dangerous cut, which he would execute from one corner to the other down the baseline, led the Miami Heat to dubbed it “The Danny Green Cut.” This was retained.
Green never made it big, and fourth and fifth starters aren’t inducted into the Hall of Fame. But because of how vital his skill set was, it became somewhat of a cliché to argue that a team required its own version of him to advance. This kind of stuff is still talked about today; clubs can never have enough 3-and-D players, even though many have followed in his footsteps.
