Philadelphia 76ers would be foolish not to trade Danny Green
With the NBA trade deadline just a few days away, the Philadelphia 76ers have options. When it comes to having a strategy entering the trade deadline, there is one that the Sixers front office has to do moving forward. It’s that their main goal is to trade Danny Green.
This isn’t an indictment of his play this season as he’s been solid for a 33-year-old player in his 11th year in the NBA. He’s averaging 9.1 points and 1.4 steals, while making 39.0 percent of his 3-pointers.
On top of that, he’s a proven champion who has won a title for all but one of the franchises he has played for, which was the Cleveland Cavaliers in his rookie season. He’s a great locker room guy to have as well so this has nothing to do with Green the player, but everything to do with his contract and how it impacts the team moving forward.
Why the Philadelphia 76ers need to trade Green before the deadline.
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The logic behind this idea has to do more with the team’s salary cap moving forward, more than it does with Green himself. Green’s contract allowed the 76ers to get Al Horford’s albatross contract off their books the last offseason when Philly sent the big man, along with draft picks, to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Green, Terrance Ferguson, and Vincent Poirier.
Green is in the last year of his contract that is making his $15.4 million. The 3-and-D legend is a great player to have on the roster, but the Sixers wouldn’t pay him nearly that much this upcoming offseason to return if they went that route.
Sadly, that salary cap space disappears if they don’t re-sign Green to that same amount because the franchise is operating over the salary cap. Team’s can only go over the salary cap to re-sign their own player through what is called “Bird Rights“.
It doesn’t make sense for the Sixers to re-sign Green to that type of money and they lose it if they don’t use it. 76ers’ president of basketball operations Daryl Morey surely knows this and should be looking at a player who is preferably younger, can improve Philly’s play, and has multiple years left on his contract or who they can re-sign in free agency.
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If the Philadelphia 76ers decides to keep Green, then they lose the ability to go over the salary cap to add quality talent to their roster.