Danny Green doesn’t think NBA just jumping into playoffs would be ‘fair’ to teams, says Lakers still talk in group chat every day

The NBA will resume its season eventually, or at least that’s what team owners and executives expect. Assuming it does return, a decision will need to be made on which games will be played, and that decision could have an impact on how the Los Angeles Lakers look in the postseason.

For example, if the NBA decides to let teams play a few regular season games before the start of the postseason, players will get the opportunity to get their wind back after sitting out for several months. Comparatively, if the NBA opts to fast-forward to the first round of the playoffs, players could look as rough as they do at the start of the regular season, if not worse because they don’t have access to their training facilities.

Danny Green was presented with those two scenarios in a recent interview with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, and, unsurprisingly, he thinks it would be best if there were at least a few regular season games before the start of the postseason:

MT: Just a hypothetical here, but what if the standings are frozen and things go right to playoffs. How would that work from a physical standpoint, depending on how much time passes? Figure you’d need some kind of warm-up games?

Green: For sure. I don’t think that’d be fair to just have teams dive right into the playoffs. I think we’d need at least five games of the regular season to just get us our flow back. Get our legs back under us, get some kind of rhythm, get our chemistry, get our team back. I don’t know if it’s preseason-type games or scrimmages, but at least five or six games under our belt to get back into team form.

When Green said “get our chemistry,” he likely was referring to the on-court variety, because he said he still talks with his Lakers teammates daily:

MT: How have you been staying in touch with your teammates? The group chat on text?

Green: Yeah, we have a group chat. We all check in daily with each other, especially now. It was easier when we’d see each other in passing when we were going in for individual workouts. Guys would be on different places of the court but we’d see each other.

So it’s more likely that Green was talking about the comfortability of playing with his teammates. After all, in spite of their early success, they’ve only been playing with each other for five months. In other words, they’re still learning how to play together, and this break in the schedule could hurt the progress they’ve made.

Let’s hope that the NBA gives teams some time to get back into the swing of things, for the sake of the Lakers’ chemistry and the general health of the players, because after how much this season has already been derailed, the last thing that the league needs is a flurry of injuries in the playoffs.

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