Atlanta Hawks: Ranking the 12 Best Fits in Free Agency
By Chris Guest
#8. Danny Green
We have previously explored why Danny Green on the Atlanta Hawks would be a perfect fit going into the 2019-20 season, but it’s worth exploring again here.
An area where the team desperately needs help is defensively in the backcourt, where Atlanta needs a sturdy defender to help paper over the glaring weaknesses in Trae Young’s game on the defensive end at the point of attack.
Green, a 10-year NBA veteran and All-Defensive Team selection in 2016-17, would fit that bill perfectly. Per ESPN’s real plus/minus metric, Green was the 11th-ranked player in the entire NBA in that category – directly ahead of All-NBA selections such as Rudy Gobert, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving.
Green was also tops among all shooting guards in RPM, miles ahead of lauded players such as Bradley Beal, Victor Oladipo, Andre Iguodala and CJ McCollum.
Furthermore, BBall Index’s player impact plus/minus ranks Green as the 19th player in PIPM in the league ahead of a smorgasbord of big names such as Chris Paul, Karl-Anthony Towns, Russell Westbrook and Al Horford.
Lastly, Green produced perhaps his best, most efficient season at age 31 with the Raptors by shooting 45.5 percent from deep on a near career-high 69 percent three-point attempt rate per Basketball Reference. Couple that with a career-high 63.2 percent true shooting percentage and you have the makings of a brilliant fit alongside Trae Young at the two guard.