Official D'Angelo Russell Thread

[moonpie]

[Paradise]

there are 2000+ pages of discussion dedicated to this Kid in lakersGround, which means this kid is a polarizing figure.... I don't think his character or maturity makes him polarizing, instead different opinions about his talent level make him polarizing...
I am intrigued to see how this kid will perform in Nets...

As a member of LakersGround, and a longtime Laker fan, my pulse for the Lakers fanbase is usually pretty good. And you are very correct, he's absolutely polarizing amongst Lakers fans.

.. Which is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. In my opinion, it makes the Lakers fans look like a bunch of spoiled c*nts.

Unfortunately, the fact that he's polarizing doesn't have too much to do with his basketball abilities. There was a huge section of the fanbase that never wanted him from Day 1. I was in that group. Most people clamoured for Jahlil Okafor and slammed the pick when it was made. I certainly was not happy. But, with hindsight being what it is, the fact that we chose Russell over Okafor was such a gift looking back on it especially with the way the league started to change and with the issues that Okafor faces in today's NBA. Shows how good I would be if I was a GM -- However, I certainly wouldn't have signed Mozgov for 4/64. Maybe 3/30. So maybe that balances my GM'ing abilities out.

The other reason he's polarizing is the whole Nick Young thing. Many people will never get over the whole "snitching" thing, which is ridiculous. The guy is a basketball player and 19 year olds mixed with social media don't particularly do well in most cases. So when that happened, people harped on his supposed lack of maturity and just used "Laker Great" Byron Scott's awful coaching and even more ridiculous attitude as something to fall back on as proof of his immaturity. Also, when Scott's buddies like Worthy and Magic started to comment on the whole "immaturity" thing, that just added more fuel to the fire for Russell's detractors. Also, for as much "immaturity" that Russell has, ever hear any stories about Russell partying and making it rain in clubs? I certainly don't. The only time you hear from him off the court in his personal life, it's about his dogs and his brothers and family. That doesn't scream immaturity to me.

So based off that conversation, some Lakers fans act as if every PG drafted in the Top 10 must emerge into an on & off the court leader for the team for the pick not to be horrendous. Some Lakers fans act as if that's a new rule amongst 19 and 20 year olds instead of focusing on the basketball abilities and watching the player get better and better every season, which is exactly the direction that Russell is going.

My 2 cents.

I was surprised to find arguments between Laker fans and D'Angelo fans (who knew they existed) about this deal. It seems like there is a sizable contingent who follow him as a player and are thus "switching" to the Nets because of him.

That's fine by me!

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Prokhorov turning Laker fans into Net fans. I think he might fulfill the prophecy if the Knicks deal Melo and KP.

[Paradise]

I hope Russell tapes this Magic quote on his locker and looks at it every day.

"D'Angelo is an excellent player," Johnson said Friday, when the team introduced its top draft pick Lonzo Ball at its practice facility. "He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader. I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with."

If he ever needed a chip on his shoulder, Magic was there to provide it. Could have just said that he thought Lonzo was a better fit for their vision or something along those lines. Questioning his leadership is a low blow IMO.

He's not even 21. He can't even buy a drink. What leadership is there for him to display as a sophomore?

I don't think Magic would even utter those words had they lost their pick to Philly. It's just a level of arrogance.


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[steady]

I'm still trying to figure out by the lakers would gift us Russell. I wonder if they prioritized putting him in a good situation for his development.

That's the one thing I think you can count on as not having figured into their thinking. They want LeBron and PG in 2018, the trade was for the cap space, and bc of Ball coming in at PG, DLo also a convenient scapegoat for chemistry issues on team.

[DarkXaero]

I posted this on the General Board that good young guards have been hard to come by, just check out the last 4 years draft picks and how they've turned out:

2013 - Oladipo (2), McLemore (7), KCP (8), Burke (9), McCollum (10), MCW (11)
2014 - Exum (5), Smart (6), Stauskus (8), Payton (10)
2015 - DLo (2), Hezonja (5), Mudiay (7)
2016 - Dunn (5), Hield (6), Murray (7)

So the Nets managed to nab arguably the 2nd best guard in the batch aside from CJ McCollum. This is a great get, and we know that DLo will be have more upside here as well.

I think Hield is a safer choice to be a better player than Russell in the future. Russell has the higher potential but more question marks as well.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Magic is clueless for what he said about Russell.

How is it fair to ask a 19 year old to be the "leader" of the Lakers? He got drafted to a team with Kobe on it and then his second year all they did was talk about Lonzo Ball.

He better hope Ball is the next Jason Kidd because the expectations are going to be all time high.

[steady]

I hope Russell tapes this Magic quote on his locker and looks at it every day.

"D'Angelo is an excellent player," Johnson said Friday, when the team introduced its top draft pick Lonzo Ball at its practice facility. "He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader. I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with."

If he ever needed a chip on his shoulder, Magic was there to provide it. Could have just said that he thought Lonzo was a better fit for their vision or something along those lines. Questioning his leadership is a low blow IMO.

He's not even 21. He can't even buy a drink. What leadership is there for him to display as a sophomore?

I don't think Magic would even utter those words had they lost their pick to Philly. It's just a level of arrogance.


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Magic - transcendent player, sometimes an idiot off the court

When DLo was drafted, Lakers had not had a high lottery pick in forever. He was to be their next Kobe Bryant and Magic rolled into one. Supposed to singlehamdedly save a franchise that had laughable mgmt, even worse coach and an Awkward group of players that didn't have a lot of fit or chemistry.

[DartboardT]

But this is an absolute gift to the Nets! Kid with obvious lottery talent arrives with a bag of chips on his shoulder thanks to Magic, probably someone he idolized growing up, throwing shade on the way out.

If you're ready, Kenny Atkinson and the players have PLANS for you, Dloading.

[MrDollarBills]

Dbl

[MrDollarBills]

Russell needs to take that quote from Johnson, tape it to his locker and get ready to work. No need to even respond.

The fact that Johnson tossed him under the bus like that leads me to believe that there is a toxic environment over there. I hope Brook will be alright.

Now I really want this kid to succeed. **** them

[MrDollarBills]

Magic and Byron are asking a lot of a 19-21 yr old kid to be leading one of the most high profile franchises in the NBA imo. Those 2 were still in college at that age. I'm glad Russell is here now and won't have to deal with such expectations. Despite what many forum members here think, Lin will be the leader of the team this year and he will show Russell the ropes. It's going to be a nice place for this young lad to develop and mature.

Who said Lin wasn't the leader?

[MrDollarBills]

Wish D-Lo the best. Awful trade for the Lakers.

Positives:

- Already dealt with a lot of young player issues. His work ethic, mentality, maturity has improved a ton over the last couple months.
- Great pick and roll player. With shooting around him, he can look amazing.
- A post game that showed significant improvement throughout his rookie season. It's one of the only things that Kobe did with the young core -- was work with Russell on his post game. Kobe would even clear out at times when he saw Russell going into the post and with an advantage. Didn't see much of it in Year 2 under Luke.
- Great ball handler, has an amazing in-and-out dribble that he rediscovered halfway through the year. From that point on, his ability to get to the rim improved.
- Can put up points in a hurry, especially when he gets hot. And when he does, he doesn't need much space to get a shot off.
- Contrary to what people say, the analytics on him defending PG's isn't bad by any means.
- His skills are off the charts good.
- Consistent minutes = consistent production
- Shows up in big games.
- Phenomenal cutter and great off ball coming off screens. The amount of times he was flat out missed by clueless Lakers players on cuts was just horrendous.

Negatives:

- Can look great for stretches and then disappear. Although, this issue reduced drastically after Lou Williams was traded and he was playing more minutes. Seemed much more engaged.
- Doesn't respond well to being challenged. He was on an amazing run and then was all of a sudden benched by the Lakers coaches/management after 1 tough game. His first two games after the benching was awful and it looked like he didn't give a crap. After he had a talk with Magic and Pelinka, he came off the bench strong against Milwaukee and in a season high against Cleveland.
- SHOOTING MECHANICS: I hope you have a great shooting coach. Russell's feet have a tendency to be all over the place when he shoots. If he can get that fixed, you'll see a huge improvement in his percentages.
- Not super athletic. Rarely dunks and looks slow on the court. However, Steve Nash got layups in this league. That won't prevent him from being a damn good player.
- Finishing ability. If he can work on his finishing ability, his game will improve even further.
- Knee issues?


With all that said: The Lakers surrounded him with Ivica Zubac, Larry Nance, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Corey Brewer, David Nwaba, Jordan Clarkson for the majority of the second half of the season. See any prolific shooters on that team? I know I sure as hell don't. His numbers in a full month of March:

18.6 PPG
4.8 APG (an absolute miracle playing with that group)
1.8 SPG
43% FG, 36% 3PT, 75% FT

Surround him with a couple shooters, give him 33-36 MPG and he'll have at least that production.

Enjoy him, I'll sure as hell miss him. Under no circumstances should a player with that much talent and that many skills be involved in a salary dump, especially when the end goal is a complete fantasy land and agreements by future "big time" free agents haven't happened.

Good stuff. He'll be challenged here, but in a more positive, constructive way. We'll see what happens.

Good luck man. Lakers seem like they are running a **** show over there. I speak from experience, the fish rots from the head down, always.

[TylersLakers]

Wish D-Lo the best. Awful trade for the Lakers.

Positives:

- Already dealt with a lot of young player issues. His work ethic, mentality, maturity has improved a ton over the last couple months.
- Great pick and roll player. With shooting around him, he can look amazing.
- A post game that showed significant improvement throughout his rookie season. It's one of the only things that Kobe did with the young core -- was work with Russell on his post game. Kobe would even clear out at times when he saw Russell going into the post and with an advantage. Didn't see much of it in Year 2 under Luke.
- Great ball handler, has an amazing in-and-out dribble that he rediscovered halfway through the year. From that point on, his ability to get to the rim improved.
- Can put up points in a hurry, especially when he gets hot. And when he does, he doesn't need much space to get a shot off.
- Contrary to what people say, the analytics on him defending PG's isn't bad by any means.
- His skills are off the charts good.
- Consistent minutes = consistent production
- Shows up in big games.
- Phenomenal cutter and great off ball coming off screens. The amount of times he was flat out missed by clueless Lakers players on cuts was just horrendous.

Negatives:

- Can look great for stretches and then disappear. Although, this issue reduced drastically after Lou Williams was traded and he was playing more minutes. Seemed much more engaged.
- Doesn't respond well to being challenged. He was on an amazing run and then was all of a sudden benched by the Lakers coaches/management after 1 tough game. His first two games after the benching was awful and it looked like he didn't give a crap. After he had a talk with Magic and Pelinka, he came off the bench strong against Milwaukee and in a season high against Cleveland.
- SHOOTING MECHANICS: I hope you have a great shooting coach. Russell's feet have a tendency to be all over the place when he shoots. If he can get that fixed, you'll see a huge improvement in his percentages.
- Not super athletic. Rarely dunks and looks slow on the court. However, Steve Nash got layups in this league. That won't prevent him from being a damn good player.
- Finishing ability. If he can work on his finishing ability, his game will improve even further.
- Knee issues?


With all that said: The Lakers surrounded him with Ivica Zubac, Larry Nance, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Corey Brewer, David Nwaba, Jordan Clarkson for the majority of the second half of the season. See any prolific shooters on that team? I know I sure as hell don't. His numbers in a full month of March:

18.6 PPG
4.8 APG (an absolute miracle playing with that group)
1.8 SPG
43% FG, 36% 3PT, 75% FT

Surround him with a couple shooters, give him 33-36 MPG and he'll have at least that production.

Enjoy him, I'll sure as hell miss him. Under no circumstances should a player with that much talent and that many skills be involved in a salary dump, especially when the end goal is a complete fantasy land and agreements by future "big time" free agents haven't happened.

Good stuff. He'll be challenged here, but in a more positive, constructive way. We'll see what happens.

Good luck man. Lakers seem like they are running a **** show over there. I speak from experience, the fish rots from the head down, always.

Thanks buddy and good luck to you guys as well. I'll be paying attention the Brooklyn Nets this year for sure.

Sad part is: The Lakers are back on track with a lot more value around the league since they got rid of Buss and Mitch. However, a move like this just doesn't make any sense.

Would Brooklyn in a year be willing to make the same deal, except Mozgov would have 2 years remaining on his contract? Of course they would.

Also: Trading Randle & Clarkson, and stretching Moz & Deng would have given them the necessary cap space as well to get 2 max guys. Unbelievably short sighted.

[MrDollarBills]

Wish D-Lo the best. Awful trade for the Lakers.

Positives:

- Already dealt with a lot of young player issues. His work ethic, mentality, maturity has improved a ton over the last couple months.
- Great pick and roll player. With shooting around him, he can look amazing.
- A post game that showed significant improvement throughout his rookie season. It's one of the only things that Kobe did with the young core -- was work with Russell on his post game. Kobe would even clear out at times when he saw Russell going into the post and with an advantage. Didn't see much of it in Year 2 under Luke.
- Great ball handler, has an amazing in-and-out dribble that he rediscovered halfway through the year. From that point on, his ability to get to the rim improved.
- Can put up points in a hurry, especially when he gets hot. And when he does, he doesn't need much space to get a shot off.
- Contrary to what people say, the analytics on him defending PG's isn't bad by any means.
- His skills are off the charts good.
- Consistent minutes = consistent production
- Shows up in big games.
- Phenomenal cutter and great off ball coming off screens. The amount of times he was flat out missed by clueless Lakers players on cuts was just horrendous.

Negatives:

- Can look great for stretches and then disappear. Although, this issue reduced drastically after Lou Williams was traded and he was playing more minutes. Seemed much more engaged.
- Doesn't respond well to being challenged. He was on an amazing run and then was all of a sudden benched by the Lakers coaches/management after 1 tough game. His first two games after the benching was awful and it looked like he didn't give a crap. After he had a talk with Magic and Pelinka, he came off the bench strong against Milwaukee and in a season high against Cleveland.
- SHOOTING MECHANICS: I hope you have a great shooting coach. Russell's feet have a tendency to be all over the place when he shoots. If he can get that fixed, you'll see a huge improvement in his percentages.
- Not super athletic. Rarely dunks and looks slow on the court. However, Steve Nash got layups in this league. That won't prevent him from being a damn good player.
- Finishing ability. If he can work on his finishing ability, his game will improve even further.
- Knee issues?


With all that said: The Lakers surrounded him with Ivica Zubac, Larry Nance, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Corey Brewer, David Nwaba, Jordan Clarkson for the majority of the second half of the season. See any prolific shooters on that team? I know I sure as hell don't. His numbers in a full month of March:

18.6 PPG
4.8 APG (an absolute miracle playing with that group)
1.8 SPG
43% FG, 36% 3PT, 75% FT

Surround him with a couple shooters, give him 33-36 MPG and he'll have at least that production.

Enjoy him, I'll sure as hell miss him. Under no circumstances should a player with that much talent and that many skills be involved in a salary dump, especially when the end goal is a complete fantasy land and agreements by future "big time" free agents haven't happened.

Good stuff. He'll be challenged here, but in a more positive, constructive way. We'll see what happens.

Good luck man. Lakers seem like they are running a **** show over there. I speak from experience, the fish rots from the head down, always.

Thanks buddy and good luck to you guys as well. I'll be paying attention the Brooklyn Nets this year for sure.

Sad part is: The Lakers are back on track with a lot more value around the league since they got rid of Buss and Mitch. However, a move like this just doesn't make any sense.

Would Brooklyn in a year be willing to make the same deal, except Mozgov would have 2 years remaining on his contract? Of course they would.

Also: Trading Randle & Clarkson, and stretching Moz & Deng would have given them the necessary cap space as well to get 2 max guys. Unbelievably short sighted.

Seems like they had it out for the kid. He'll get a fresh start here. Good luck to you guys. Treat Lopez well, he's a great guy.

[Karate Diop]

The one thing that can assuage any concerns about Russell's character will be the shape he's in to start the season.

If he's serious he'll realize the opportunity in front of him and take it by the horns.

[DartboardT]

Seems like they had it out for the kid. He'll get a fresh start here. Good luck to you guys. Treat Lopez well, he's a great guy.

Well, if you see how Lakers treated JLin and Dloading (perhaps more the FO/Magic than Coach Walton, I wasn't following them at all last season), BroLo could be in for a bit of a tough year with the Lakers.

[Paradise]

D'Lo vs The Atlantic Division.

Spoiler:

15 Pts, 7 Rebs, 2 Asts vs Philadelphia

Watch on YouTube

20 Pts, 6 Rebs, 6 Asts vs Boston.

Watch on YouTube

28 Pts, 5 Asts, 4 Rebs vs Toronto.

Watch on YouTube

[MrDollarBills]

D'Lo vs The Atlantic Division.

Spoiler:

15 Pts, 7 Rebs, 2 Asts vs Philadelphia

Watch on YouTube

20 Pts, 6 Rebs, 6 Asts vs Boston.

Watch on YouTube

28 Pts, 5 Asts, 4 Rebs vs Toronto.

Watch on YouTube

I think we can pencil this guy in for at least 23ppg.

[DartboardT]

Like them highlights!

I can see Dloading on the left (since he's a lefty), JLin on the right, putting constant pressure on defenses whenever both are sharing the floor (which...should be most of their 28-32 mpg).

It's just buy-in and learning the system, and I have to think Atkinson will be a LITTLE flexible if Dloading has any trouble fitting into the current system for any reason.

If I had a concern, it'd be that Dloading seems a bit slow out there (I like the "old man game" skillset tho). Otherwise...yeah, he looks like there's a reason he got picked 2nd two years ago. Solid sophomore campaign on a rudderless franchise.

[SubZero]

Read on Twitter

^start at 1:12 and continue to watch.. makes Curry and Klay look lost and foolish lol

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