OverDrive - Green on LeBron and Doncic's duo, the Raptors' impressive run and Antetokoumpo's future in Milwaukee

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

ESPN NBA Analyst Danny Green joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Lakers' roster, LeBron James' role on the team, Luka Doncic becoming an integral player, Raptors' impressive start and the team's ceiling, Giannis Antetokounmpo's future in Milwaukee and more.

Every year it's the same. I get socks. You get socks. We all get socks. Not me. This year, I got more. More socks? More for less. Virgin Plus hooked me up with an affordable phone plan and member benefits on food, fashion, and entertainment. So while I'm knee-deep in snow and novelty socks, you're unwrapping deals all season?

Exactly. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Get more for less this holiday season with affordable phone plans and member benefits you'll love. Virgin Plus, obviously. Visit a Virgin Plus store or virginplus.ca for details. Here's the ESPN NBA analyst, former NBA former Raptor, former champ up here in Toronto, joining us here on the Maple Toyota

Hotline. Here's Danny. What's happening, Danny? What's up, guys? How are you doing? We're doing really well. We were just, you know, obviously teeing up the Raptors game tonight. We'll get to that momentarily, but we stumbled across Oklahoma City chasing history. And have you gotten to that point yet where you can

can you envision 74 wins out of this Thunder team? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one would argue that they might be deeper than Golden State was and they can win in games while resting guys. Golden State Draymond spoke about taking some life off his, like some years off his life doing that 73 wins because he had to play every game. Like Steph and Clay, they had to play pretty much every game.

This Thunder team has played 90% of their games without Jaila Williams. And, you know, Lou Dord has sat, Alex Crusoe is set, Isaiah Hardinstein has set. so they sent a bunch of different guys there in wiggins case in Wallace they all have taken time in terms to rest for them to able to do that without without him the only person hasn't sat is sGA and i believe there's some games you can probably sit and they can rest they can rest him but you got the emergence of a j. Mitchell you got the emergence of you know Isaiah well Isaiah Joe's been there but he's been playing well those other guys they keep developing and getting better each year allows them to be very deep and be able to rest guys so they can do this and still

stay fresh by the end of the year to make a great playoff run and win a championship still. They can clean house if they wanted to. Well, speaking of guys who might need some rest, Danny, we got a guy in town tonight who's made this town LeBronto at times in

LeBron James, the way he's dominated the Raptors in his prime, but he doesn't look like he's in his prime anymore, and it's almost shocking to see LeBron look somewhat vulnerable. One game? Yeah, it's one game, but I mean. We go up one game and say that he tells you he feels old he's still getting back to rhythm he had sciatica it had seven

game winning streak they had a back to back he didn't look himself so yeah he's taking half a step but i'd imagine he'd be in different form in a couple weeks again this this group they're playing at a high level playing really well uh but yeah i mean it's a 23 years to see him look somewhat normal but he's still very much capable and i think he'll show us that he is very much capable probably tonight or the next couple of weeks that he's still LeBron. You know, he'd not be 27, 7 and 7.

He'll be, you know, 20, 22, maybe between 18 and 22 and probably like 9 and 6, you know, or like 7 and 6 or something like that. So he's still playing very well, high level for any player, especially a 40, 41-year-old, and part of kind of

pretty much just being the quarterback and empowering his teammates. Yeah, I'm with you, Dan. I wouldn't put anything past LeBron. He's done things that we've never seen before. no matter the age, but of course at this advanced age, it really is unique. I mean, when you look at this balance, though, that they're trying to strike with the Lakers. I mean, they've been 11 and 4 without him in the lineup because Luke has been outstanding leading the league in scoring. They won't have him tonight.

Austin Reeves has emerged as a really great secondary score on that team. I'm wondering, like, what is the challenge? This will be the first time where LeBron is not the focal point, arguably, of his team, from an offensive perspective at least. I mean, how do you think that's going to be navigated as the season goes on here by J.J. Reddick, the head coach, and the players in question? Just the way it is.

I mean, they've been doing just fine since he's been back. I imagine he still play the role he's been playing. That's more of like a quarterback second unit. When those guys rest or, you know, like if anyone decides to sit out, it'll probably take more of a ball handling role. It's Lucas team. and then AR is very much at 1B because he's out

they're both top 10 in scoring he's taking his game to another level by getting to the free the line whenever he wants to he's learned a lot from Luca, he's taking a page out of his book doing that so they're both very good high-scoring guys and he can just be the quarterback and probably shifting to another gear when there's when necessary when needed if

a DeAndre Aton's out, Marcus Smart if he has to play the four or the five they played small ball but they made it work even last year when the trade happened they've been pretty good the biggest key is the playoffs and having those three still playing at that level and finding a front line

that can match other teams front line. It's going to be tough when you have Denver matchup or OKC matchup. Now you have Aitin. I think that kind of neutralizes if they match up with Minnesota again. I don't see Rudy Gover again 30 and 20 against them. So they fixed it somewhat,

but again, those other teams are just deeper, but they are a really good position right now. I'd imagine they continue forward with what they've been doing. It's been working. they're second in the West and they're going to win games as long as you have Luca playing the way he's playing leading the league and scoring

and Austin playing the way he's playing they're going to be just fine with Danny Green and you know in the East the team that sits second right now would be the Raptors and the wraps have been great this year and you know Scotty Barnes in particular is a guy like we obviously know when he won

rookie of the year okay what he was capable of doing and the team hadn't been great the last couple of years but Scotty has been playing phenomenal basketball he just won defensive player the month in the East his defensive play in particular is clearly rubbing off on everyone like what

in terms of ceiling we keep talking about it because he's still a relatively young guy but even if he's hit it like this is a guy who is going to be a very good player for a long time but what do you make us Scott what else could be there in his game and how impressive you've been by the Raptors this year

he's so young there's still a lot of potential there for him to grow especially offensively we've seen what he can do defensively but offensively he's developed You know, he started being more confident, comfortable shooting that three and that pull-up. Again, I mean, this is a big jump, but I seen a guy coming to the league that I didn't expect to be anything of what he is, and he turned out to be Kauai Leonard. So, you know, like, there's a lot of possibilities there. He's got the build, he's got the shoulders, he's got the size to do a lot of things.

I didn't see Kauai developing a jumper like that because he didn't shoot it. I only first came in, but next you know, he changed a shot a little bit, developed mid-range, took his time. his three ball went up to over 40 and then now he's a lead score. So there is no reason why. I mean, Scott, he could. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time, but could it be one of the better two,

he definitely could be one of the best two-way players in our league at some point. I don't know if it'll be Kauai Leonard, but he definitely can develop into that. Like his offensive game can use some strides and he has the tools to do so. Danny, speaking of Kauai, you know, we've been looking back a little bit with all the

controversy swirling around the clippers, looking back to the time when the Raptors wanted Kauai to stay and there was a lot of courting and cajoling to try and get him to stay in Toronto. Of course he ended up with the Clippers and now there's a mess essentially

that's been created with Steve Baumers' team aspiration if you want to call them that but the weirdest thing happened last night with Chris Paul being told he's being sent home from the team at 3am apparently after a long meeting

with team management like, I mean, I don't know have you ever seen anything like that A and B, what could have gone into that and how do you interpret it? You know, every year I feel like as we get older, we're like, oh, I've seen everything.

Nothing can shock me, but there's always something that shocks the hell out of you. And the league never fails to amaze me. Whether it's game, situation, coaching players, cut wave trades. I didn't think Luca Dodgers would get traded ever.

it happened um so yeah again this is something new to me i've not seen a 20 year vet a hall of famer gets sent home because of you know co or trying to be a leader or i guess complaining they would say right so i mean you would think logically they had conversations with him i don't know i hope for their sake they did and i hope for their sake that is worse than this because it looks really bad to send a guy home for that but i hope for chris's sake that is not nothing worse than this, but his story made me believe that he had no idea this was coming

and it wasn't warranted. Now, if he was quiet and out of spoken, I'm sure he'll speak sooner than later. If he's quiet and I'll spoken that that would make me believe that there's something behind closed doors that we don't know about. But to me, this seems like a miscommunication of him and coaching staff in front office and they just no longer wanted to deal with it or be around it.

But again, I think that that could be solved with a conversation, especially after a guy that said maybe a week or two ago that he's retiring. This is the last season. Hey, Chris, man, we get what you're trying to do. We don't need that here right now. We can move in a direction. We're moving in a different direction. And if you don't like it or we're doing this, if you don't like it, then you can go home. We give you the option to go home. Or if you don't relax, we're going to have to ask you to go home. But I don't know if that

conversation happened. Yeah. Out of nowhere, sending a guy home on the road, too, is a bizarre, bizarre, bizarre player. Yeah, the hour, the hour made it look worse, too. It may look worse in the hour. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, that story was almost. immediately overshadowed by Janus, you know, all of a sudden, him and his agent and the box working on possibly his exit and he gets injured last night. He could be out two to four weeks. Is it as simple as Janus to the Knicks for you, or do you see other teams, obviously other teams would want them, but Janus is going to have a pretty heavy voice in all this. Like, how do you see it playing out with Janus?

I mean, he wants to go there. That's what he's let it be known. Like, he's portrayed that indirectly, you know, through rumors, agents, whatever, you know, Doc said he didn't ask for it directly from them for a trade. He loves Milwaukee wants to be there, but I'm sure his agent and people around him are telling him he wants to get to New York or somewhere

else. You know, I've done my podcast inside the green room. I've done other podcasts throwing out different random trades just for, you know, it's and giggles. And, you know, I thought, you know, San Antonio would be a good destination for him. I thought he can go to Miami. I thought Minnesota.

So it would be nice to see him with Ant Man and match up, but he still move away. But honestly, the best packaging could come from Toronto. You know, you guys could definitely make it work. It's just unfortunate besides not there anymore because that would be a direct connect to him. But, yeah, I think he, Toronto has an opportunity to make a push year. He's still in the East. The East is open. They're a number two-seater team.

And, you know, they would treat him like a God there. I mean, obviously anywhere, but they would love to have him, I'm sure, in Toronto. but again you think it would have to include scotty in order for that to for milwaukee to accept it probably probably um yeah i mean you could you could get away with just doing r j barrett it had to be either one of those three rj barrett and ingram or maybe two but i would think would include scotty i think you can do rj i don't think you give it a quick i don't know what other bench you have to probably maybe yacopold if you threw him in there like i don't know what contracts have to match up but i don't think it would include scotty i don't

imagine they would want youth picks and best of youth and that would probably be scotty which Toronto's reluctant to let go I wouldn't want to let him go either yeah without a doubt I mean Danny when you look at the east you talk about it being wide open you got Detroit at the top the Knicks 14 and 7 the heater having a pretty good year but they're not overwhelming Orlando's still an unproven team obviously that you know the the the indiana's and the Boston's having major injuries to star players has changed the landscape I mean you know How would you handicap it? Like, what do you think the chances of the Raptors being the Eastern Conference

champion in a way that Indy was a surprise Eastern Conference champion last year could be possible? I mean, I'd never say never, anything's possible, but I think a lot of things would have to happen. They are a really good team. That is only they have the experience for the playoffs right now. Like, even though Cleveland's down right now, not doing well, they still have more playoff experience in Toronto. Orlando, they're getting better. They have a pretty good experience. Milwaukee's not looking good this year.

Indiana's not looking good this year. It's pretty open, but even Philly, if Philly gets healthy at the right time, they have more veteranship and playoff experience than Toronto does. Outside of that, I think they can do it. I mean, Detroit has a little bit, Detroit is very well, too, they have a little bit more experience.

But again, it'd have to be matchups. It have to be things that are aligned right. Again, even Miami, even though they don't have stardom, like super stardom, they've been playing really well, and they have some playoff experience. So it would be tough for them, and I think it more so will come down to Darko,

And him being his second, third year, as a coach, he is very good at what he does. I've had Darko Memphis, so I know he's capable. But it would be a new experience for him and company in the group and the kids. You just don't know who's going to show up at that time because they don't have much experience there. Well, we'll see what they got with the Lakers in town tonight. Again, Luca, not playing, but LeBron's here might be his last dance in Toronto, a town. He's been very familiar with it. Yeah, it's going to be a fun one tonight.

Enjoy it, Danny. I always appreciate you doing this. Thank you. For sure, man. I appreciate you guys. Take it easy, all right? You got it. There's Danny Green, VSPN, his podcast, Inside the Green Room.

Former Raptor, Champ, San Antonio, L.A., Toronto, joining us here on the Maple Toyota hotline, get in and go where adventure takes you in a new 2025 Tacoma from Maple Toyota near Canada's Wonderland. In the Maple Auto Mall, visit Maple Toyota.com. Iheart Radio. Everything holiday. All in one place. From 24-7 Christmas music to the stories behind the Christmas hits with Drew Savage. Listen to the podcast on the free IHeartRadio app, your destination for all things Christmas. Merry Christmas.

These are the songs that get you in the spirit. Keep listening for all your Christmas favorites.