D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

D'Angelo Russell, Lakers: B

Russell had mixed results in the Lakers' loss. On the plus side, this was probably his best game in Vegas as a playmaker. Russell had more good passes than his four assists would indicate, making the right read when the Cavaliers trapped him off the pick-and-roll. The downside was Russell's 3-point shot no longer dropped. He missed six of eight attempts beyond the arc and scored just 19 points on 20 shot attempts.

Brandon Ingram, Lakers: B

Oddly for a player who shot 41 percent from 3-point range in his lone season in college, the weakest part of Ingram's game this week in Las Vegas has been outside shooting. He finally made a 3 after missing all six he tried in his first three games, but finished 2-of-7 beyond the arc. Still, Ingram showed ballhandling and playmaking skills that weren't evident at Duke, connecting with center Ivica Zubac on an alley-oop and pulling off an impressive in-and-out dribble in transition before missing the layup. The Lakers used Ingram at power forward with the second unit, a spot where he could be effective as he adds strength.

 

The remaining half of the Times' Dumb and Dumber team has has been writing better last 6 months or so for the most part.

 

That's about as close to praise that we are gonna get from Plaschke. Article wasn't that bad to me though.

 

A B on possibly his worst performance in Summer League. I thought in other games he performed quiet with the exception of the first half against Philly, but he got it together in the 2nd half hit the game-winning shot. We'll see how he does tonight.

Some Commentary from GT:

Tale of two halves tonight. Couldn't buy a shot in the 2nd, and didn't get us into the actions that was working in the 1st half. Overdribbled on several possessions.

As for the defensive end, he was fine. We soft hedged PnRs all night, which gives up the mid range shot that Felder was especially effective at. He wasn't getting beat, it was our defensive scheme. I would have liked to see us switch up our coverages a bit.

He'll almost certainly play more off ball with the regular season roster. This SL team doesn't have a lot in the way ball-handling, so Russell has been playing more of the traditional PG spot than he will when Clarkson, Calderon, Lou, & Randle are in the fold. That's what's especially impressive about his SL performance. No one is creating shots for him (only 7 of his 31 makes have been assisted), and he's still been very efficient (58.6 TS%) on high usage. (32.5%)

 

Good stuff.

I think he'll bounce back tonight and have another good game. Overall though he has played well.

 

Well, let's be real. He wasn't very good in last summer league, and I'm being nice. I thought he put together a decent rookie year under the circumstances; so far, he has worked hard during the summer and he's looked a lot better even if he's going against undrafted players. I think that he'll have a good year; Here's hoping to a Lillard type (Lillard;s rookie year) breakout year...

 

Some say he was ball hogging like Kobe

 

I don't like the 8 three-point attempts.

 

There were moments of black hole-ness but he also had many other nice passes that were hockey assists, misses or led to fts. His black hole shots were actually good looks for him. Just coming up short.

 

I'm slightly concerned about his passing as well but I won't over react until we see the same thing during preseason where he has better talent around him.

 

Yeah, I was referring to his summer league play this year. I really think Luke is going to have a good effect on him.