Danny Green retires from NBA, but three-time champ — and quintessential 3-and-D guy — remains an archetype

Danny Green announced his retirement from the NBA on Thursday, 15 years after the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him with the No. 46 pick. In Cleveland, Green earned more attention for dancing on the sideline than anything he did in his 20 appearances on the court. He was waived by the Cavaliers before his second season started, then waived by the San Antonio Spurs a week after they signed him. Then he went to the D-League, earned a call-up from San Antonio and turned into a model for aspiring role players everywhere. He won championships with the Spurs, the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Green made 43.6% of his 3s in his breakout 2011-12 season and 40% in his career. He created space for stars, and he didn’t get in their way. He took on difficult assignments on defense, too, and eventually established himself as one of the league’s premier defenders, earning All-Defense honors in 2017. He was not the first “3-and-D guy” — the term predates him winning an NCAA title with North Carolina — but he was the most prominent one when it spread from the blogosphere to the broadcast booth.

In San Antonio, Green was in some ways the spiritual successor to Bruce Bowen, who averaged 6.4 points in eight seasons with the team and has his jersey retired. Unlike Bowen, though, Green was not confined to the corner on offense. He shot 3s off movement, above the break and in transition. He took deep 3s and contested 3s. He was so dangerous with one specific, unconventional cut — along the baseline, from one corner to the other — that the Miami Heat started calling it “The Danny Green Cut.” This stuck.

If Green has a signature moment (besides his legendary dunk on Greg Paulus in college, that is), it’s Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals. He made 3s over each member of Miami’s Big 3, including an off-the-dribble bomb with Chris Bosh’s hand in his face. He finished with 27 points, and when he scored 24 in Game 5 and San Antonio was a game away from the title, it appeared Green might win Finals MVP. Green made 27 3s in that seven-game series; this was a Finals record at the time, and Stephen Curry is the only player who has made more since.

That series ended in heartbreak, but the Spurs got their revenge the next season, playing a majestic style of basketball that used the Heat’s aggressiveness against them. Green was never the first, second or third offensive option, but he was an ideal connector. He made quick decisions, he made few mistakes, and he made defenses pay when they got in rotation.

San Antonio traded Green to the Toronto in the Kawhi Leonard blockbuster in 2018, and the pair won their second championship together. The next year, after signing with the Lakers, he won another title, becoming the fourth player in NBA history to earn a ring with three different teams. The Philadelphia 76ers traded for him in 2020, and he tied together a starting lineup that outscored opponents by 14 points per 100 possessions; his calf injury was a significant factor in their second-round loss to the Atlanta Hawks, but other factors got much more attention.

Green tore his ACL in his second season in Philadelphia, and this would be the beginning of the end of his career. The Sixers traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2022 offseason, and he finished the following season with the Cleveland Cavaliers after a trade and a buyout. Green rejoined the Sixers in the summer of 2023, but only appeared in two games before they waived him in order to facilitate the trade that sent James Harden to the Clippers.

In a way, calling Green a 3-and-D guy shortchanges him. For a decade and a half, he subtly adapted his game so he could prolong his career and complement different types of stars. He won titles with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. He played with Joel Embiid, James Harden and, if only briefly, Ja Morant and Donovan Mitchell. He was an amazing transition defender, with a particular knack for chase-down blocks. For more than a decade, he was a beloved supporting character in the NBA. He was not boring. He had pet snakes.

The label doesn’t have to be limiting, though, especially now that it’s widely accepted that even low-usage guys need to be able to drive closeouts and make reads. For Green, it should be a badge of honor, not a backhanded compliment. After an inauspicious start to his NBA career, he became not only a champion but an archetype. Desmond Bane and Royce O’Neale are among many players who have studied his game and sold themselves to NBA teams as potential “Danny Green types,” i.e. low-maintenance, high-IQ players who contribute on both ends.

Green was never a star, and there’s not a Hall of Fame for fourth/fifth starters. His skill set was so valuable, though, that it became a bit of a cliche to say that a team just needed its version of him in order to take the next step. To this day, you still hear this type of thing; even though scores of 3-and-D guys have followed in his footsteps, teams can never have enough of them.