After helping the Toronto Raptors win their first NBA championship title, veteran shooting guard Danny Green decided to return to the Western Conference in the 2019 NBA free agency, this time, to give LeBron James a hand in bringing the Los Angeles Lakers back to their former glory. The 2019-20 NBA season may be their first time playing together, but Green didn’t have a hard time sharing the court with James as he already had plenty of experience playing with a player of the same caliber in Kawhi Leonard .
Green said that both James and Leonard are “great players” who are “extremely serious” about their game. However, though James and Leonard are currently considered as the best two-way players in the league, Green revealed in a recent appearance on ESPN’s First Take, which is currently posted on Youtube , that there are also notable differences with their performances, especially with how they play on the offensive end of the floor.
“Obviously, Kawhi is not as vocal as LeBron has been over the years,” Green said, as quoted by Bleacher Report . “But you could tell last year he started picking it up a lot more and this year he’s a lot more vocal than he was ever, and he’s starting to learn that. But on the court-wise, LeBron is probably more a facilitator. Kawhi is probably more of, you know, an attack offensive, you know, dissecting the defense type of player. LeBron is the same way. And they’re both, you know, very good defenders when they turn it on. They can lock down some guys.”
Leonard’s current team, the Los Angeles Clippers, may currently be the heavy favorite to fully dominate the Western Conference and win the NBA championship title in the 2019-20 NBA season, but Green, James, and the Lakers would make sure that their road to the 2020 NBA Finals won’t be easy. James isn’t getting younger but at 35, he is still playing at a high level and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.
This season, where he is one of the frontrunners to win the 2020 Most Valuable Player award, James is posting incredible numbers, averaging 25.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 10.6 assists, and 1.2 steals while shooting 49.8 percent from the field and 34.9 percent from beyond the arc.
As the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. continues to rise, it remains a big question mark when the 2019-20 NBA season will resume. However, the NBA suspension will be beneficial for James’ Lakers and Leonard’s Clippers as it would give them the opportunity to be in their 100 percent best shape when the real battle begins in the 2020 NBA Playoffs.