Green Leads the NBA in Most Wins Since 2012-2013
If you had a sports trivia night and the question of “Which NBA player has the most wins in the last decade?” came up, many fans may instantly jump to LeBron James or Steph Curry. Some may even think outside of the box and go for someone like Chris Paul or James Harden. Regardless of their potential answers, no one would guess correctly. This is because the man who leads the NBA in total wins since 2012-2013 is none other than Danny Green.
Since solidifying his place in the NBA during the 2011-2012 season, Danny Green has played for some historically good teams, including the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors, and Los Angeles Lakers. Even now he is on a championship contender with the Philadelphia 76ers. What has allowed him to not only play for, but also start for so many championship teams? Plain and simple, he is one of the best two-way role players of the last decade. Since RAPTOR began being recorded in 2013-2014, Danny Green has recorded out as an elite level defender and anywhere from an average to well-above average offensive player. In that time, not once has he ever fallen into the negative for overall RAPTOR.
Not an advanced stats person? That’s fine, his standard stats are just as impressive. While he has only eclipsed double-digit points per game three times, he was one of the most consistent 5th-6th options for much of the last decade, averaging 8.7 PPG in his career. He was also one of the best spot-up three-point shooters since 2011-2012, where he has finished 40%+ from beyond the arc six times. While a couple seasons in that duration were up and down, he remains a 39.9% three-point shooter, and proved to be one of the best 3 and D players that the league had to offer.
The Robert Horry-Lite Title Run
Horry won 7 NBA titles, as well as 5 of them in an 8-year stretch. This was a mixture of Big Shot Bob being an amazing role player for great teams, but also getting a great stroke of luck for some of his title wins. Now no one will ever be able to replicate his legendary 8-year stretch, however only four players have ever won a title with three different franchises and Danny Green is one of them. This last decade of Danny Green is what should be considered the lite version of Robert Horry.
With the Spurs, a young Danny Green helped the Spurs win the 2013-2014 championship, starting all 23 playoff games for them and led them in defensive box +/-. Additionally, in their 4-1 finals series win against the Miami Heat, he put up a remarkable 98 defensive rating which was the best for either team and Green was the primary defender on Dwyane Wade, who had a horrendous finals series offensively averaging a mere 15.2 PPG on 43.8% shooting. Danny Green added 9.2 PPG of his own (on 45% shooting from 3FG) and averaged 2.0 steals per game.
Moving onto his lone season in Toronto in 2018-2019, Danny Green helped the Raptors win their first ever NBA Championship. Brought over in the Kawhi Leonard trade, Danny Green plugged into the Raptors starting lineup nicely, starting all 24 playoff games for them. While his defense statistically was not as dominant as his championship run with the Spurs, he did fit in perfectly with Toronto’s team defense and was able to hit 6 three pointers in a pivotal game 3 of the NBA finals. Green played the 6th most minutes for the Raptors and averaged 7.3 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 1.2 steals per game to raise the trophy for a 2nd time.
Lastly and most recently, Danny Green was a key rotation piece for the Bubble-Lakers championship team in 2019-2020. He once again started all 21 playoff games for the NBA Champions that season and was 4th in minutes played behind only LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Green was solid on both ends of the floor in the playoffs yet again, and while he did struggle shooting in the finals this season, he was still an essential glue guy for the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged 7.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 1.0 steals per game and raised the trophy for the 3rd time in the last decade.