In his first game donning the iconic purple and gold (or purple and school-bus yellow since Nike took over jersey duties), Danny Green exceeds all expectations by dropping 28 points and splashing seven triples (well, six; one wasn’t a splash). 28 points isn’t a lot when you’re comparing to the scoring luminaries he shares the court with, like LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but it’s a heck of a lot when taken in the context of Green’s career: he’s only scored more than 28 two times, once with the Spurs, and once with the Raptors.
I actually feel bad for Green now because Lakers fans, especially the ones with serious championship aspirations (which is most of them), will expect Green to be consistently good now. They’ve seen how good he can be when he’s on and they’ll want it every game. It’s unlikely they remember Green’s slow start to the season last year, or his inexplicably bad 2015-16 season where it looked like he was washed, but even if they did, I don’t think they would show any additional lenience towards Green’s inconsistency in scoring the ball. Playing with LeBron in a huge market means that you’re supposed to be good and you’re not supposed to suck.
I guess what I’m saying is that all of us real fans will be patient and understanding when Green puts together a stretch of single-digit scoring games, and if the Lakers are tired of Green not being a great scorer night in and night out, they’re welcome to trade him to the Bucks. They can have Wesley Matthews or something.