Danny Green says Lakers role players don’t care about their minutes if the team is winning

In his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers, Danny Green is averaging 25.1 minutes per game — down from the 27.7 minutes per game he averaged during his champion-winning season with the Toronto Raptors last year. It’s also the fewest minutes per game he’s averaged since the 2013-14 season, the season he won his first championship with the San Antonio Spurs.

Green is hoping to add ring No. 3 to his finger, and with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on his team, leading the way, he has a good chance of doing it. In his pursuit of a third championship ring, though, Green has had to make some sacrifices, including his minutes. However, for Green, that’s a small sacrifice to make, and in a recent appearance on Bleacher Report’s “Take It There” with Taylor Rooks, he said his feel teammates feel the same way because of how successful they’ve been this season:

“We have so many guys that can and are playing well that we don’t have enough minutes to play in the game. It’s not about us, it’s about the team, so we don’t really care about the minutes. As long we’re winning and playing well, guys are fine with it.”

Green hasn’t exactly played to his potential this season, but he’s expected to be one of their most important players once the postseason rolls around because of his experience playing at the highest level — it’s a big part of the reason they gave him a two-year, $30 million contract last summer. But Green thinks that the Lakers have plenty of role players that are capable of making a big impact on a regular basis, and he just wants to do his part:

“I wouldn’t say that. I try to be the rest role player for my team. My job is to play defense most of the time, knock down shots and space the floor, make it easier to operate — LeBron and AD. We have Dwight Howard who has a great role blocking shots, JaVale McGee catching lobs. I just focus on trying to be the best that I can for our team, not just in the league, but obviously it’s a goal to have. They don’t give an award for that, but I take pride in it.”

Let’s hope that this hiatus the NBA is on doesn’t have too much of an effect on the momentum the Lakers’ role players were building, and that Green will be refreshed and ready to go for what the team is hoping will be a deep postseason run.

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