Domejandro wrote:I’m going to be honest, I really don’t buy the D’Angelo Russell takes.
By default, it will improve because he couldn’t struggle more, but even when he plays at his best (like last year), he is only a slight positive, on-the-court. From my perspective, I kind of think it is analysts coping with the fact that Minnesota has no reasonable pathway to exchanging D’Angelo Russell because of the team’s lack of assets and cap flexibility.
Ultimately, Minnesota is forced to bank on internal improvement, so I appreciate analysts trying to raise spirits by making parallels, even if a bit tenuous. That said, the improvement we should see is more-so a result of returning to the mean than due to some adjustment window.
If Minnesota had a reasonable pathway to trade Russell, I am relatively confident that they would consider those options. They don’t, so we just have to hope he starts making wide-open shots again.
I agree with this wholeheartedly, I will add that I think that suitors will emerge for his expiring contract, but those suitors aren't going to be interested until they've given up on this season for certain and are looking towards next year.
For some teams that could be as early as january, for others it might be close to the trade deadline.
The moronic play-in system is going to complicate that.
There are a handful of players who could be potential targets that could play their way into/out of their teams long term plans (Simmons, Rozier, Hayward, the Wizards PG situation to name a few).
The nicer salary-range options we had pre-Gobert trade are gone without any draft capital left (Brogdon, Murray, Collins, Turner).
It will be hard to make a trade that makes us better right now, but not making a trade hurts us long term as we will lose that salary slot (who is giving D-Lo more than MLE next year?).
If he is patient and runs the offense, takes open shots, and doesn't make dumb mistakes (like most of the last 3 games), maybe we can make the playoffs with him.
But his on-ball defense is so bad that we basically have to hide him on a non-dribbler.
This makes everyone else look worse as Ant and Jaden are forced to guard smaller, quicker players than they otherwise would, as is KAT. Sometimes that matchup is OK when its westbook and lebron, other times its a disaster when you are facing Darius Garland, Ja, Devin Booker types you need that bulldog POA defender for.
What was so genius about the high wall last year was that it mitigated the weaknesses of BOTH KAt and D-Lo, but without Beverly and Vando that scheme has been swiss cheese this year.
He can't be as bad as he was the first 13 games or you have to sit him, we would have been better off calling up Emmanuel Mudiay from the G-League (curious to see if he could be a rotation player regardless).
