Grant was offered a 3-year/$60 million deal in the offseason to remain with Denver, but he opted to sign with the Detroit Pistons for the exact same amount of money but a bigger role.
Green wasn’t quite the athlete or offensive threat that Denver had with Grant, but he gave Denver a player that could alleviate the minutes requirement for Paul Millsap, who would be turning 36 in February, while also leaving plenty of minutes for Porter to take the next step in his path of development.
With Gordon and Porter, he won’t be in the starting lineup, but he was serviceable enough this year that he would still be a solid rotation player if he were to return next year.
To start the season, Green was coming off of the bench in relief of Millsap as Denver’s starting lineup was Murray, Gary Harris, Porter, Millsap and Jokic.
While he lacked consistency from game-to-game at times, he brought enough of a threat from outside to give penetrators room to create with the occasional bit of production down on the block.
If you had taken this grade at the end of the regular season, there is a strong chance Green likely comes in with a grade around a B.
He was averaging 2.0 attempts per game while shooting 30 percent from 3-point range which was allowing defenders to sag off of him to send attention to the team’s other offensive threats, namely Jokic.
Green only scored 20 or more points once all season, and he did it in the way Denver needed him to.
He might be able to get $7 million per in the open market, but he could just as easily opt-in to his player option for next season.
Denver drafted Zeke Nnaji last year to fill out their forward rotation, and he showed the potential as a rookie to be a viable rotation player next year.
Wherever Green is playing next season, he’s going to be playing essentially the same role we’ve seen from him since he entered the league.