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Danny Green doesn’t think he’s going to have any problems playing with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Los Angeles Lakers — he’s made that much clear since before he signed, and he has every right to be confident.
Green has thrived playing around elite forwards throughout his career — like Tim Duncan and, most recently Kawhi Leonard — and at media day on Friday, he said he expects this year with James and Davis to be no different.
“I think I’m going to fit perfectly fine alongside LeBron and Anthony Davis. Those guys are very good. They’re superstars at attacking and getting to the basket and pretty much doing everything. A lot of teams try to double-team them, and if you have floor space, it’s harder to double-team, so my job is really to play defense, space the floor and make it easier for them to operate one-on-one,” Green said.
It seems like a simple answer, but it’s been his answer to basically every question regarding his fit with James and Davis — and truthfully, it really is that simple.
Green is a career 40.4% 3-point shooter and he’s coming fresh off of a season where he averaged a career-high 45.5% shooting from 3-point range, on an also-career-high 5.4 3-point attempts per game. As long as he sticks to the status quo with the Lakers next season, there’s no reason to believe his hot shooting will cool down.
Defensively, he’s been just as reliable, and that’s really all the Lakers need him to be — reliable. While it would be nice to have an All-Star shooting guard like Klay Thompson or James Harden next to James and Davis, a player of that caliber isn’t absolutely necessary for the Lakers to be a contending team. Green knows what’s expected of him, which makes him arguably the third-most valuable player on the team.
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