D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

You know what's funny: I don't think Nash would have taken a position with GS if Luke was our coach. I really don't...

I also don't like the way Nash left after Lakers management was so generous to him.

Anyway, on topic, Nash was a master of getting guys involved and then looking for his shot. He ran the pick in roll about as well as anybody...

 

Did we ever find out if the FO was still dropping the ball at that point in time by not locking him up with a contract to do that? In a hurry before some other team like GS, or is the consensus he was offered something and chose not to for the Lakers?

 

D Angelo needs to get his s*** together


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Boron .... the gift that keeps on giving .....

 

Absolutely. He also drew up a "loop" play coming out of a timeout in a pivotal time during the game that resulted in a Russell miss...this quote sums up my larger on the balance that Russell needs to find:

“As a coaching staff, we’ll push him in the right direction as far as what we see he should be doing at that time,” Walton said in a recent interview with Southern California News Group. “But ultimately, you want him to be able to recognize that stuff on his own.”

Walton quickly ticked off a list of future Hall-of-Famers that usually perfected that dynamic well, including Clippers guard Chris Paul, former Phoenix Suns and Lakers guard Steve Nash and former Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

“Kobe knew if we were playing like [crap] that he would score and carry us until we started playing better,” said Walton, reflecting on his 10-year NBA career that was mostly with the Lakers. “That’s why we always had a chance. It’s a skill that can be developed and is something our coaching staff will be in constant conversation about. That’s something we’ll see [D’Angelo] get better at as the years go on.”

 

And you guys mentioned the hockey assists, passes that lead to FT's, and thw general shot creation that doesn't result in high assist numbers; that is all very true.

 

i have plenty of criticism for russell, but i think he sets guys up pretty well. there's not a lot of great finishers around him. our best shooters do so off the dribble, and his ideal pick and roll partner (randle) also likes to dribble his way to scores.

i still think that as he gets better at finishing in the paint, the assists will start to climb. teams actually play him for the pass when he breaks down the d right now. he has to punish that. i think he can. he's already making strides there. now he needs to stop getting caught in the air and throwing it backwards to initiate breaks for the opposition.

 

Maybe I'll realize my dream of having someone else carry the playmaking load and let Russell shoot.
I mean we have two great passers playing behind him, maybe start one of those, cough calderon cough instead of Lou.

 

I feel a playmaker should be the best player, or one of the best players, on a team. For the Lakers, Kobe and Odom was given that role. The Spurs have Parker and Ginobili. The best playmaker in the game today is undoubtedly Lebron. Calderon is certainly a good passer, but he's not dynamic enough as a player to be a great playmaker. I think the ball should be in the hands of Russell and Clarkson as much as possible. Clarkson currently seems much more comfortable in that role. Russell is such as gifted scorer so I think it'll take a while for him to taper off the shooting. I'm looking forward to see Randle and Ingram develop their playmaking as well.

 

i think people are too hung up on assist numbers. honestly, teams with guys that rack up high numbers of assists are not generally killing it. on the other hand, teams win titles with their pgs averaging closer to 5 or 6 apg pretty regularly, i think. at the very least, score-first pgs have fared better than pass-first pgs for a while now. and i do think russell makes some good passes that don't end up in buckets simply because of who's receiving them. obviously, that doesn't explain why his assist numbers are about half where i'd expect, but it matters. steph curry has klay thompson coming off screens. russ has guys who want to put the ball on the floor. the whole laker team had like, 1 assist, through the first quarter of the last game. and weirdly enough, the ball was moving some. just a collection of players that scores off the dribble (lou, jc, randle, in particular--the team's biggest scorers aside from russ). and no deadly spot-up shooters other than russell, really.

 

I actually think it could be a bad thing if Russell's assist numbers are high like around 10 a game because that means typically his usage rate is really high and in this kind of offense the ball needs to move so the defense cannot rest or clamp down on someone like Russell. If the balls moves you get higher percentage shots and everyone stays involved. Steps only averages around 5 a game so that would be a good target for D'Angelo.

 

Steph averages about 7 ast under Kerr. But Draymond also averages 7 ast and that's probably just as important. Ideally we'd want a second player (preferably someone from the frontcourt) with the ability to make plays.

 

Exactly ... plus his assists opportunities and assists will go up once he's able to punish "soft " defenses on a nightly basis and defenses have to send help to contain him/just pay more attention to him .

The key for DAR , as for any other young player in the NBA is consistency... It's a long process