When the Raptors and Spurs made their blockbuster trade last July, discussion and analysis of that deal focused on the big pieces: Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan. However, Danny Green, who was sent from San Antonio to Toronto in the swap, has proven this season that he wasn’t just included in that trade as a throw-in.
In his first 38 games with the Raptors, Green has averaged 9.5 PPG on .438/.408/.933 shooting and has been a key part of many of the club’s most productive lineups. For the season, Green has a total plus-minus of +374, which leads the NBA by a huge margin — teammate Kyle Lowry is second at +283.
In advance of his first game in San Antonio as a Raptor on Thursday night, Green spoke to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca about how he found out about being traded, his experiences playing with Kawhi, and his 2019 free agent decision, among other topics. Here are a few of the highlights from that discussion:
On his time with the Spurs:
“It was the organization that groomed me. It’s kind of where I grew up in this league, became professional and learned how to be one… spending so many years with Timmy, Tony, Manu and Pop, of course, I learned how to win, how to be successful and played in some very fun games, battles, big stages, so it was a blessing all around. It was a great part of my career, great stage and it helped me get to where I am today and hopefully I can carry that on to wherever it is I’m at.”
On how he felt about being traded to the Raptors:
“I’m a positive person. I look at things in a positive light, that’s human nature, or my nature anyway. I already knew how [the Raptors] played… the more I watched and the more I studied I thought: ‘You know what? This could be a really good fit.’ And the fact I was going with [Leonard] helped even more.”
On his 2019 free agency:
“Obviously we don’t know what’s going to happen after this year. I would love to still be here [with the Raptors], obviously, but we don’t know. We don’t know where [Leonard’s] going to be, we don’t know a lot of things [that] are going to happen. In terms of decision making, [Leonard’s future] affects everybody.
“… If [Leonard] stays, they might want to bring everybody back; if he leaves, they might want to change, who knows? We’re both grown, we can make our own decisions for our own families. We might sit down and talk about it to see what page he’s on and how he feels about something and how I feel, but at this point we’re not thinking about that or talking about it. We’re trying to play good basketball… and get everybody healthy and winning games. Hopefully at the end of the year we can celebrate some things, outside of free agency.”
Danny … we hated to see you go but that’s the nature of the game. It’s great to see that YOU are having a good season and we (Spurs Nation) wish you well … Go Spurs Go
I’m not sure if Green will come cheap but I think he would be a good signing whether Raptors are rebuilding or not. His diving for the ball in the closing seconds last night is what’s generally missing. Spurs winning mindset is you do anything and everything to win. Definitely not just a throw in in this trade.
Does anyone really think that a major factor in Kawii’s FA decision is going to be hey “Danny Green and I sat down and now I want to do this…” lol — it kind of sounds a little funny for Danny Green to say.
Nah he meant that he would talk to Kawhi to try to get an idea of whether he’s staying or not so it can help him make a decision on his approach to his own free agency.
Green looked slow and on the decline last year, but now it seems that can mostly be attributed to his undiagnosed injury (by the Spurs staff) which has now healed up.
He doesn’t often fill up the stat sheet, but he’s been unbelievably good in Toronto this year – especially on defense.
Green shows how to combine the 3 and the D. A number of times that I saw with the Spurs, he seemed most of the time to be in a contentious defense-first mode. Then when the situation warranted it, he would suddenly decide to go for a 3pointer and burst forward to take it.
He makes distance shooting more exciting that way… or did, anyway. Anybody can just wait at the line to shoot, then be surprised when he has to play D.
IDK what Popovich was always hollering at him about. But the Cavs did nothing with Green during his time there. I hope somebody hires JR Smith and he responds… not that many players are fun to watch shooting from distance.
He played 5.8 minutes per game in 20 games in 1 season with the Cavs, his rookie year lol. I don’t understand why you would expect him to have had any impact on the Cavs not winning a championship at the time he was there.
They drafted Green, did nothing with him and dropped him fast. Of course he did nothing for them either… but that is NOT what I said.
On the other hand, whatever Pops did seems to have worked.