Photo Credit: Chris Humphreys – USA TODAY Sports
There was an odd rumor going around before today’s trade deadline that Danny Green was being shopped as trade bait for Atlanta’s Al Horford.
(I knew that rumor was bullshit. Had you even heard of Morning News USA before February 15?)
Danny Green ain’t going anywhere. Green is as Spur as they come. He took a very friendly 4 year, $40 million deal to stick with the team that first believed in him as a professional basketball player, and that team wasn’t going to ship him off to Atlanta for another Center. No, not even a very talented Center.
San Antonio didn’t go all Hollywood on the entire NBA last offseason and land LaMarcus Aldridge just to throw away a starting shooting guard for depth, especially when they’re missing Manu Ginobili for who knows how long.
What’s more, it doesn’t make sense for the Spurs to go after a player like Horford, given that their biggest obstacle in the Race for Seis is Golden State.
At this point, I’m not sure it’s possible to write an article about the Spurs without bringing up the Golden State Warriors, but in this case, it’s 100% not possible.
So, proponents of the Horford-Green trade that didn’t happen, could you please tell me how Horford would have:
- helped San Antonio keep up with Golden State’s offense?
- helped San Antonio stop the Warriors’ offense?
Horford is an offensive threat, yes, averaging over 15 points a game this season, but does San Antonio need another aging big man in the rotation?
Presuming Tim Duncan is healthy, you’ve got him, Aldridge, Boris Diaw, and David West competing for meaningful minutes and shots (sorry, Boban), so how would you have worked Horford in?
And is Horford the kind of player that’s going to help you keep with Golden State’s offense?
I’m of the opinion that to beat the Warriors, the Spurs are going to have to take and make as many jump shots as humanly possible.
On the other end of the court, they need to make Golden State look human, take contested jump shots, and hope that those jumpers don’t fall.
In other words, you need people like Green, Aldridge, and Kawhi Leonard to play the defensive games of their life, and also play the offensive games of their life at home and on the road, for anywhere from four to seven games in a row.
Talented big men are cool, but Horford is an old big man now. He’s 35, and it’s hard to believe his production level is going to hold up. His knees are probably one freak landing away from turning into dust. You also couldn’t guarantee that Horford would have stuck with San Antonio beyond the end of the season, as he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
Danny Green is 28 and locked up for three more years after this season.
If San Antonio wants to go after another big man, doesn’t it make more sense to wait until after the end of the season?
I mean, one of these days we have to admit to ourselves that Duncan is retiring and fan-favorite Boban is probably not the immediate answer. This is totally fine as far as I’m concerned – it’s nice to get Boban minutes in competitive games right now, and let’s hope that he turns into a formidable starter over the next few years. If that happens, San Antonio needs a bridge (assuming that Duncan is gone), and Horford would never have been that bridge.
I don’t know who that bridge is, but you could probably talk me into one of the Lopez brothers. They strike me as the kind of guys who enjoy LARPing, so maybe Duncan can convince one of them to hang out in San Antonio for a few years. The Nets need to blow that whole organization up, but Brook Lopez isn’t a free agent until 2018, so a straight-up signing is out of the question.
And who on this current Spurs roster do you trade for a guy like that? Green? Probably not.
Anyway, my apologies to all the Al Horford fans and Danny Green haters in San Antonio. Both players are staying put and them’s the facts.
