Los Angeles Lakers: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
Signed Danny Green
The idea of “championship pedigree” is probably overblown by many, a way of overvaluing role players who happened to be on teams with the star power to win a title. What is not made up is that the kind of role players who excel on title teams share some similar characteristics.
Danny Green is a versatile defender, a knockdown shooter and a low-usage offensive player.
That’s what the Los Angeles Lakers are gaining this offseason, a player who elevates his team’s play during the postseason without taking much if anything away.
Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee have won titles before, but neither player has the requisite skill set to elevate the Lakers to greater postseason heights.
Green brings a knockdown shot with him, hitting 45.5 percent of his 3-point shots last season, good for a career-high 198 makes.
No player on the Lakers last year hit more than 151 and the highest 3-point percentage (among players with 100 attempts) was Lance Stephenson at 37.1 percent. Immediately Green gives this team a dimension it did not have before.
As he did in Toronto and with the San Antonio Spurs Green is likely to start at the 2, although he played plenty of small forward for the Raptors and could slide down to the 3 in lineups featuring some combination of Quinn Cook, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Troy Daniels.
He unlocks options on offense and defense for a team with championship aspirations of their own.
The question for Green just comes down to price, and the Lakers paid a pretty penny for the swingman. Green will make an average of $15 million per year over the next two seasons.
Los Angeles likely had to pay that level of annual salary to outbid the Dallas Mavericks, who saved their cap space for Green in the hopes he would sign if Kawhi Leonard left Toronto; the Lakers’ quick pivot left them out in the cold.
Although Green is 32 his game is built on shooting, something that won’t leave him in the same way that elite athleticism will. He will certainly slow down as he fully exits his prime, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be productive and worth the deal.
A four-year deal may have turned sour, but a two-year deal seems like the sweet spot for a player with whatever “championship pedigree” we decide exists.