4. The Cleveland Cavaliers gave up on Danny Green too soon
The current Cleveland Cavaliers recently signed NBA veteran Danny Green to a contract on the buyout market, and plenty of headlines were made about Green’s NBA journey coming “full circle” back to the team that drafted him. The reason there was a circle and not a straight line is that the Cavs completely gave up on Green in the first place.
After drafting Green 46th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft, a Cavaliers team with eyes on playoff success didn’t have much room for Green. The wing averaged just 5.8 minutes per game in 20 appearances, shot 27.3 percent from 3-point range in an incredibly small sample, and was waived before the next season.
Green caught on with the San Antonio Spurs, and then was waived again before signing back with them later in the year. From there things took off, with Green developing his 3-point shot into an absolute weapon and becoming one of the league’s premier 3-and-D wings. Green won a title with the Spurs, another with the Toronto Raptors, and a third with the Los Angeles Lakers.
For his career, Green has hit 40 percent of his 3-pointers on robust volume, and he set the record for most 3-pointers in an NBA Finals before some guy named Stephen Curry broke it. Imagine Green being on the second edition of LeBron James contending teams? Instead, he was suiting up elsewhere because the Cavs gave up on him way too soon.