After the NBA Trade Deadline, a number of veteran players find themselves on rebuilding teams that don’t particularly want or need their services. Those players would rather play for a team that matters, while the team on track to miss the playoffs would rather give playing time to developing players or free-agent fliers.
That’s where the “buyout market” came from. These veteran players and their teams negotiate a buyout where the player takes slightly less money and the team then waives them, allowing them to hit the open market and sign wherever they would like. Historically, that has not been with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Yet on Super Bowl Sunday, when veteran wing and three-time NBA Champion Danny Green secured a buyout from the Houston Rockets, he had a number of contenders vying for his services. Which team did he choose? The Cavaliers, over other options like the Boston Celtics. That is yet another sign that the Cavs have arrived as a true contending team.
The Cleveland Cavaliers added a perfect fit in Danny Green.
Danny Green may be getting long in the tooth at 35 years old, and he is coming off of a major knee injury, which is why he was a buyout option in the first place. Even in a small role, however, Green can be exactly what this team needs. Let’s break down Green’s fit and how he checks off all of the boxes for a Cavaliers team that looks even more dangerous now.