Los Angeles Lakers: Three bold predictions for Danny Green
By Jason Reed
1. He creates one-half of one of the best defensive duos in the NBA
In case you didn’t know, Danny Green is really good at playing defense. So good in fact that he was named to the All-Defensive Second-Team in 2017. While he has not repeated the honor in the last two years, Green is still a top-20 defender in the league.
The reason why bringing Green in is so important is that the team needs someone who can guard the other team’s best player on the perimeter. Green is that guy that is going to be tasked on Stephen Curry, James Harden and Damian Lillard.
He is not the only great defender on the team, though, as Anthony Davis has legitimate Defensive Player of the Year potential. However, in Davis’ case, he is better off defending other team’s bigs and is going to be tasked on the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.
That dynamic of having an impact defender on the perimeter as well as having an impact defender that can guard bigs is going to make Green and Davis one of the best defensive duos in the league.
Utah is going to have a similar dynamic with Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert but the help defense that LeBron is going to provide puts LA over the top.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George might be the only team, at least on paper, that has the Lakers beat in this department. Still, coming second to those two on defense is a testament.