Danny Green has been a Toronto Raptor only a minute and he’s already a better newsbreaker than your boy. On an excellent debut episode of his new podcast Inside The Green Room, Green provided a pair of minor Raptors updates.
The first is that the Raptors have added Phil Handy to their coaching staff.
Green worked with Handy when Handy was a player development coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He finished there as the director of player development and assistant coach, getting let go at the end of the season and immediately receiving reported interest from a number of teams. A University of Hawaii Manoa grad, Handy spent his pro career all over the globe – including under Nurse with Manchester of the BBL – and has been in the NBA coaching system since 2011, earning rave reviews for his work in Cleveland in 2015-16.
Handy joins Sergio Scariolo, Nate Bjorkgren, and Adrian Griffin as additions to the staff to replace the outbound Dwane Casey, Rex Kalamian, and Jama Mahlalela (who replaced Jerry Stackhouse with Raptors 905).
Green played 2017-18 with a tear in his groin
Green also revealed that his end-of-season exit physical with the San Antonio Spurs revealed a tear in his groin. He first suffered the injury in December and it was diagnosed as a strain, he underwent an MRI, and he then played through it the remainder of the season hoping to help the team make a deep playoff run. His agent even suggested getting a second opinion at the time – hi, Kawhi Leonard’s camp – but he gutted it out and is unsure when the injury got worse. To be clear, Green was adamant that the Spurs’ medical staff did a good job and he was doing nothing to disparage them, merely explaining.
Still, Green shot 35.5 percent on threes from the strain forward and at times looked to have slowed a step on defense. With an entire season to rehabilitate the groin, the 31-year-old figures to enter the season healthier and can pretty safely expected to contribute as a versatile 3-and-D weapon.
There’s a bunch of other great stuff in the podcast, too, and I recommend checking it out.
