Draymond Green knows a thing or two about what it takes to win an NBA championship, and he certainly felt the dominance of Kawhi Leonard, who helped him outplay the Toronto Raptors beyond the Golden State Warriors in the Finals. last season. When Leonard left Toronto to go home to Southern California last summer, and brought Paul George with him, the Los Angeles Clippers immediately became a top-tier title contender, if not the absolute favorite.
Count Green among those who initially favored the Clippers, who, in his opinion, mark each championship box. But now that the conditions surrounding the upcoming 2020 postseason have drastically changed, Green has changed his mindset and is now favoring LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to come out with the title.
“I think going into the season and throughout the season, the Clippers were the favorites,” Green said on ESPN’s “Jalen and Jacoby” show. “Just when you look at their team, I think they have someone who marks each box. A defender: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Patrick Beverley. When you talk big: Kawhi, Paul George, Marcus Morris. They check all the boxes. They can match well with any team. And they have shots. They have Montrezl [Harrell] well down. They have everything you need to win a championship.
“However, I think that when entering this bubble, the Lakers should be the favorites, because they have LeBron and he can adapt to anything,” Green continued. “And I think he’s probably the most disciplined player we’ve seen in the NBA. And that’s going to matter if you get into this bubble. I think having LeBron on your team in this bubble gives you a slight advantage.”
So let’s think about this. Obviously, declaring that the Lakers are the championship favorites “because they have LeBron” is not a great standard of analysis, even if it is true. Basketball tends to be a relatively simple game in terms of the disproportionate impact that superstars can have. It’s true on playgrounds, high school, college, and it’s often true in the NBA: If you have the best player, you’re in great shape.
But what Green says about LeBron being “the most disciplined player” sounds particularly true in these bubble conditions. Athletes are creatures of habit and routine, and none of this is familiar. Without fans. Strange practice times. Games start in the middle of the afternoon. Teams out of rhythm, players out of shape, the virus out of your control. Meanwhile, the fight for racial equality continues outside the bubble while remaining in mind for many of the players within it.
Being able to channel all of these dizzying and unfamiliar circumstances into a place of extreme concentration and attention to detail becomes the most crucial of skills in Orlando. Off the court, do you stick to your schedule and minimize distractions? On the court, can you continue with your same game when everything around you is different?
There is a reason why teams don’t tend to play as well on the road. It is easier to eliminate distractions at home, in your own bed with your family, even something seemingly insignificant as a family trip to the sand that serves as a natural mechanism of reduced focus. For a team like the Lakers hoping to compete for a championship, you could be on the road for more than two months in a row.
As for the games themselves, I don’t think many people realize how different things will be in empty arenas. If you’re getting close to one percent as a pickup game and consequently stray even a little from the strict discipline you normally play with, even if that only leads to an inadvisable shot here or there, or an occasional defense span, that can be the difference between winning and losing.
It’s also a completely different kind of approach, and for Green’s point, discipline, when you leave yourself with your own motivational devices. For many players, as much as the pure pursuit of winning is the most romantically disputed source of motivation, it really is the NBA’s brightly lit atmosphere, the crowded house and the fiery performances and the ebb and flow of the crowd, which really get them going.
So, yes, the mental discipline to sink further into yourself, block external conditions, and play as if nothing had changed, will separate many teams and players in this particular set of conditions. And if Green believes LeBron to be the most equipped player to do this, he makes all the sense in the world that would elevate the Lakers to the top of the board.
