The Lakers did post a 50-32 record and record the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference this season, but they fell short of a deep playoff run, losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in five quick contests
Wing Danny Green, who won the 2020 championship with L.A., recently guested on Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes’ “All The Smoke” podcast to talk all things basketball. Green reflected on what old teammate LeBron James and James’ latest superstar comrade Luka Doncic should expect in the coming years together.
“I think they’re explosive offensively, (but) I think they lack a lot defensively,” Green said. “I don’t know how many years he (James) has left longer, and it’s just really hard to win a championship when your best player is 40 years old… He can still average 30, 20-something [points] but I just don’t see them winning a championship with that formula right now.
To say James is the Lakers’ best player at this stage is erroneous. He probably hasn’t held that distinction since the club’s 2020-21 season. Green had been dealt away in exchange for Dennis Schroder, so he never had an opportunity to defend L.A.’s title.
After that 2020-21 run, 10-time All-Star center Anthony Davis was clearly the best Laker — until he was flipped for Doncic, who instantly took the mantel. James can still be a great No. 2, but this new dynamic duo needs a center and a lot of wing defense to thrive.
Elsewhere on the pod, Green raved about James’ upside as a teammate.
He knows everybody, what they can do, where their best spots are, ‘He shoots 48 percent from here, this is his wing’ or ‘This is his corner,’” Green added. “He wants you where you’re at, where you’re best at and he’s gonna find you there too. He knows they’re gonna double him and if they don’t, he’s gonna kill. He made the game very easy.
Green was selected by Cleveland out of the University of North Carolina with the No. 46 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, and had a cup of coffee with the club in 2009-10 as a rookie. He fully cemented himself as one of the league’s great 3-and-D wings during his second stint with the San Antonio Spurs, from 2011-18.
It’s a gift and a curse, but he made the game easy and it was a lot of fun learning from him early on,” Green raved about playing alongside James during his first stint with the Cavaliers.
The 6-foot-6 swingman went to two NBA Finals with the Spurs, winning in 2014. He and Kawhi Leonard were flipped to the Toronto Raptors for the 2018-19 season, and instantly claimed their second championship together. Green signed with the Lakers as a free agent the following summer after Leonard departed for the L.A. Clippers, and promptly won his third and final title as a starter that year.
“A lot of fun playing against him. And then even better playing with him and then, it was the bubble, but winning a championship with him,” Green said. “I couldn’t ask for a better scenario.”
