Danny Green
Every championship contender needs a consummate glue guy. The kind of player who does two things well and who never tries to do more than he can.
The Lakers have been missing this type of player for years now.
Last season, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could have been an excellent role player for the Lakers, but instead of focusing on his 3-point shooting and perimeter defense, he always tried to drive to the rack or hit two-dribble pull-ups. In the end, KCP was awful on defense and below average on offense for the Lakers last year.
While KCP was bumbling around the court for the Purple and Gold during the 2018-2019 season, Danny Green was the best 3-and-D role player in the NBA. He finished 2nd in the association in 3-point shooting (46.5%) and 2nd among all shooting guards in ESPN’s defensive real plus-minus (2.07).
During the 2018-2019 season, as the Raptors amassed wins throughout the regular season and then marched through the playoffs, eventually winning the title, Green was there the whole way. He covered the opposing squad’s best perimeter player to help Kawhi Leonard save energy, and he made teams pay with his precision shooting from distance whenever they helped off of him.
Lakers fans have been giddy throughout the summer with visions of Danny Green playing the same brand of basketball as he did last year up North, for the Purple and Gold. Many folks have been salivating over the image of Green hitting wide-open trey’s off of LeBron James’ pinpoint passes or Danny locking up the likes of CJ McCollum or Klay Thompson (when he returns from injury).
Green isn’t guaranteed to replicate his performance for the Raptors next season with the Lakers. In fact, during Green’s last three seasons in San Antonio, he hit a below league average mark of 35% from distance.
Green has always been a great defender, and unless he gets injured next season, that won’t change. However, the Lakers are going to need him to show up in Raptors offensive form during the 2019-2020 season to open up space for James and Davis to operate pick and rolls.
Next season, if Green’s 3-point stroke backslides to the way it was during his last few seasons on the Spurs than the Lakers are going to have some trouble on offense. If Green can’t make opposing squads pay for sagging off of him to muck up a LeBron James and Anthony Davis set, then things are going to be congested for the Lakers on the fun side of the ball.
Next season, Frank Vogel and the Lakers are going to be strongly dependent on Green to hit 3-pointers at a high enough rate to make opposing defenders stay honest. If he slumps from behind the arc, it’s going to make it easy for the opposition to zero in on the Lakers two superstars, thus making it very difficult for the Purple and Gold to win a title.