“People Don’t Realize”: Lakers’ Assistant Coach Makes Bold Statement on Danny Green’s Criticism

In the NBA, a player is as good as his last triple-double and as bad as his last clutch failure. So the chances of looking bad are always higher. Such is the competition that consumes the very best of the talent, and this was something that the Lakers’ Danny Green had to deal with in Game 5.

The Deadshot is a great three-point shooter on any given day. But he somehow missed out on converting that desperate pass from LeBron James that cost the Lakers the game. A flurry of dissing and shaming followed Danny after he failed at that open shot. But what exactly happened when the Lakers left the court?

Lakers’ assistant coach has the perfect answer

For someone who has never played a team sport at a higher level, it’s easy to assume that the entire Lakers unit must have put the blame on Danny. But the truth is far from this hollow assumption. 

Lakers’ Assistant Coach Phil Handy closed the case in an interview where he detailed the moment. He revealed, “Man, it’s no conversation to be had, except for we do. Danny gets his work in after games, we had a pretty routine with him and  KCP, we get our shots in, we get our work in. Man, we don’t pay attention to the outside noise. My message to Danny is, we always keep working, we do. But his impact on the game is more than shooting. That’s what people don’t realize. So my message to fans, you either with us or against us. We don’t give up on our family. We ride through all the storms that we go through and look at us now.”

This obviously meant that the Lakers win as a unit and lose as a unit. The solution is never to put the entire blame on one shoulder. The Lakers clearly realigned their focus on Game 6 and easily won it. 

Danny Green and his forgotten legacy

The Deadshot has three NBA rings that all came with three different franchises (Spurs, Raptors, and Lakers). During the last year with the Raptors, he closed the regular season with 45.5% shots made from the downtown. That’s a ‘Stephen Curry’ level of accuracy, and it is not at all easy to accomplish. While playing for the Spurs in the 2016 post-season, Danny recorded 50% from behind the arc with 4.8 attempts per game. 

It is true that Green’s accuracy has dramatically dropped with the Lakers. But as Phil Handy has said on multiple occasions, Danny brings much more than shooting to the unit. This can be understood as an acknowledgment of the fact that he has been extremely consistent in the starting five of the Lakers. Coach Frank Vogel trusts him and so should fans.