One of the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest acquisitions in the 2019 NBA offseason following the failed Kawhi Leonard signing was Danny Green.
Green signed with the Lakers on a two-year, $30 million deal after taking home his second NBA championship during the 2018-19 NBA season with the Toronto Raptors. He also put up career-highs in both field goal (46.5) and three-point (45.5) percentage.
In his lone season with the Raptors, Green not only had to be a consistent 3-and-D presence on the court, but he had to function as somewhat of a leader off it. With Leonard being as quiet as he is, it was up to a mixture of Green, Kyle Lowry, and Marc Gasol to lead an otherwise young roster.
One thing Green is excited about for the 2019-20 season is that he’ll no longer have to be that leader as the Lakers are flooded with veterans. Green can simply focus on playing his game without having to keep young players in check, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s a different role for me this year. I don’t have to be as much of a leader, keep the locker room together as much as I did last year. We have more veterans now and I think we just help each other. Everybody here has some experience with different organizations, different teams and take each other’s advice and opinions and perspectives and learn from each other. But, I’ll do the best I can as I always have, especially with younger guys and even guys that haven’t been in the league as long to help them adapt and adjust to certain things to help our team be better.”
As for Green’s role on the court, he is excited about the number of talented players he gets to play with, and how easy it could be to get open shots in the offense head coach Frank Vogel plans on running:
“Playing with LeBron and AD and obviously other great players. Dwight, Kuz, Rondo, AB. So many guys we have on this team. And just kind of feed off them. They’re gonna push the pace, they’re gonna create option shots, not just for myself but for them. So just have fun, push the pace. It’s hard to live up to that again. I’ll try my best to. I’ll try to shoot as good as I did last year, if not better, and try to make as many. But just gotta go with the flow and try to get shots within the offense.”
Green will likely be one of the biggest beneficiaries of an offense led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. If Green can hit shots at the rate he did last season, he instantly becomes one of the most important players on this team.
The Lakers will look to benefit in a huge way from Green’s play and he’ll likely find himself in the starting lineup and in key moments at the end of the games.