NBA: Lakers Rising Star Talks Kawhi Leonard, Recalls Intense Moments During Clippers Game

A Los Angeles Lakers rising star shared his thoughts about Kawhi Leonard and recalled how intense the first game against Clippers was.

Troy Daniels is evidently one of the players who electrify Lakers fans this season. After having a good start coming off the bench, Daniels is now perceived as the team’s future star. In fact, LeBron James even calls him “Lay-up” simply because”The King” thinks he drains his three-pointers as easy as lay-ups.

During the Lakers’ recuperating process in the offseason, Daniels was among the role players recruited by the team. Shortly after being signed by the Lakers, Davis reached out to Daniels and the rest is history.

In a recent interview with “Fair Game,” Daniels looked back at how Davis talked him into joining the Purple and Gold. According to the 7-year veteran guard, AD called him as well as Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and mentioned that they now have a chance to win an NBA championship at the peak of Leonard to Lakers talks.

“Both (Davis and Pelinka) of those guys called me and obviously, at that time we thought we were gonna get Kawhi Leonard. And basically saying ‘we have a chance to win a championship, we’d like you to be a part of it’,” Daniels revealed.

After mentioning Leonard’s name during his recruitment, Daniels was asked about his thoughts on Leonard choosing the Clippers over the Lakers. Based on his perspective, he would have chosen the Lakers if he was in Leonard’s shoes.

“It was a no brainer for Kawhi to go to LA,” Daniels pointed out.

“If I was Kawhi I would have went to the Lakers. (There’s) nothing wrong with the Clippers at all. I just think it’s more appealing in your career to go to the Los Angeles Lakers (because) they have a lot of history. But you know if you’re a guy that wants to put a team on the map, (Clippers) the team to go to,” Daniels continued.

Daniels was also pressed to talk about how the first game against their LA rivals Clippers went down during the season opener. Based on his recollection, there was a lot of “trash talking” but what was more remarkable was the intensity the rivalry has brought into the game.

“You don’t wanna know,” Daniels responded when asked about what were the trash talks he heard during the Lakers vs. Clippers game.

“It was a lot. But you can feel the energy in the arena with the fans, coaches, players, everything was times 10,” Daniels recalled.