Lakers News: Danny Green Reveals Why He Didn’t Sign With LA In Buyout Market
When Danny Green first signed with your Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent back in 2019, he held a lot of value to his name. He was just coming off of a title with Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors and was among the best two-way players in the league. By joining an LA team that featured LeBron James and Anthony Davis, it was believed Green's play style would fit in seamlessly.
The Lakers would go on to win the NBA championship that year, but Green was the subject for much criticism from their fanbase. It became very toxic during the NBA bubble in 2020 when Green started off shooting just 29% from beyond the arc. When LA made it to the Finals and had a chance to defeat the Miami Heat in game 5, Green missed a potential go-ahead three to win the game and fans were ruthless.
The Lakers opted to trade the three-time champion later that year to the Thunder in exchange for Dennis Schroder. Green bounced around multiple teams following an ACL tear recovery and eventually found himself on the buyout market in 2023. Not to his surprise, a struggling, old team that was sitting outside the playoff race reached out to reunite with him.
Green decided to sign a one-year, $2 million contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers instead. He will be joining a Cleveland squad that features Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and currently is in the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.
The former North Carolina guard spoke on his podcast "Inside The Green Room" about why a reunion with the Purple and Gold did not appeal to him.
"With all the wings they brought in and all the people they brought in, I don't think they were able to say you'll be in a good opportunity to be on the floor", said Green. "And that we're for sure going to make the playoffs. So it was very up in the air and it's a very urgent time for them. They have to win now and they have a lot of pressure doing that in short amount of time."
Green certainly made a good point bringing up all the different shooters/wings the Lakers added recently in D'Angelo Russell, Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, and more. The veteran sniper is also already 35 and missed some key time with his knee injury.
He is looking to contribute to a winning time at this point in his career and he believed the Cavaliers offered that more than LA.
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