There is not much time to prepare for the 2020-21 NBA season as everything is being rushed in order to get the season in before the Tokyo Olympics. For the Philadelphia 76ers, this means trying to incorporate a lot of new pieces around their star duo in a short amount of time.
It makes it even tougher when one of the new major pieces could not even join the team until a little over a week into training camp.
Danny Green, Terrance Ferguson, and Vincent Poirier was acquired from the Oklahoma City Thunder back on Nov. 18, but the deal could not be completed until Tuesday due to his contract not being aggregated. The Thunder acquired him from the Los Angeles Lakers a few days before and it held up the trade process with Philadelphia.
For new coach Doc Rivers, that made it even tougher to integrate Green into his new team. The good thing about Green is that being an 11-year veteran, it is easy for him to get adjusted. The other two players will have a tough time in the beginning.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” said Rivers. “I will say this though, with Danny, it’s not as tough for him. With the other two I think it’s very difficult but Danny, Danny probably can show up on the first game, and figure out how to play because he’s been doing it for so long. The other two, I think it’d be very difficult for them.”
Due to the fact that he has had experience playing for a long time in this league and he has played next to stars before, Rivers has an exact plan on how to have him fit in with the team.
“I know exactly how we want to utilize Danny, the other two will be more positional players, effort players,” Rivers explained. “With Danny off the bat I’m going to put him in a veteran role. He knows how to play off of talent and he’s done a great job of that. He’s been fortunate in his career when you think about it with all the great players that he’s been able to play next to. That’s an art, it is, it’s an art form when you learn how to still play well off of great players and Danny has done a great job of that. That’s why we wanted him.”
Green has won three titles in the league with three different teams. He played a key role in the 2014 title run with the San Antonio Spurs playing next to Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. He then helped Leonard win a title in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors before winning the 2020 title next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the Lakers.
He is a career 40% shooter from deep and he should be able to fit nicely next to Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. [lawrence-related id=39991,39988,39983]