D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

LOL. I think. Shirley .... you're not?

 

Why? Russell is the superior player.

 

Guess he prefers Booker since he a pure Sg, whatever that means....seeing as how booker is just as unathletic and some what slow as dlo. Maybe cause booker is listed at 6'6 and Dlo is at 6'5, that makes him a pure sg?

 

Obviously I was kidding about giving up half our damn team for Booker, but if it came down to Russell vs Booker, I'd give an edge to Booker right now, simply because he's slightly taller and slightly faster. I think they'll both be superstars when all is said and done.

My take on being "prototypical" is a bit different than real's. Yes, you want your players to be as versatile and dynamic as possible, but first, you want them to possess the essential skills and physical tools to be successful in their respective position. Nowadays it's not a serious detriment for combo guards to embrace scoring over passing, but ideally you still want your PG to exhibit "prototypical" attributes like playmaking and passing.

I feel fortunate we have a talent like Russell. He's a scoring machine. But if I'm completely honest with myself I'd gladly take career numbers of 20/10 over 25/5 from Russell. I'm sure that's the player Mitch envisioned when we drafted him.

 

1) I think Russell is already better than Booker, and will have a better career. Booker offers less on defense, less creation and less all around scoring ability. He can possibly be a better pure shooter, but besides that his ceiling is Klay and thats if he completely revolutionizes his defense.

2) I also think Mitch saw that Dlo was going to be a 25 and 5 type player and not a CP3 18 and 10 player. His college numbers showed that and his game definitely showed that. Like Kobe, he can make amazing passes and has great vision but his first mindset is to shoot.

 

Id rather have steph like pg over pure play making pg like cp3. Cp3 even at this lvl of experience has problems when deciding to be a pure play maker or pure scoring threat. When cp3 isnt aggressive in scoring early he seems to have hard time getting into scorng mode late in games when team needs him to be aggressive but when he becomes pure scoring his team struggles cause they just stand and warch him. Steph looks to score 1st but he'll pass if the play is there rather than forcing himself to make passing plays consistently

 

I don't have any real gripes with Russ.. Going to be an incredible player for many years. His talking I have to ignore at times. I work with Middle School and High School players much of the year. This is just what is coming at us. You do what you can to control it but talking a good game now comes before playing a good game. Kids still work hard and develop well, just like to talk. There are exceptions of course but more and more what we used to call boasting and showboating is becoming the norm.

 

Just to give you an idea of how hard 20p/10a is. Only 9 players in the history of the NBA have every done so:

 

Why do people think you need a true point guard? Who was the last true point guard to win a championship? Seriously it's been years.

2016 - Kyrie
2015 - Steph
2014 - Parker
2012 & 2013 - Chalmers
2011 - Kidd
2009 & 2010 - Fish.

One true point who was on the decline already.

 

Geez you guys have high expectations. All I'm expecting is an All-Star for 15 years that is top 3 at his position, a future HOF'er, and talked about with the All Times greats, while helping me not miss 20 years of Kobe.

1 out of the 15 has to have a shot at that right?

 

Seriously I think a lot of it all began with the young, amazingly talented and brash Cassius Clay.

But damn .... Russell has been doing a lot of backing it up lately in pre-season.

 

How bout steph shooting and handles, passing skills of magic, with elite lock down perenial 1st tm defense.....to much?

 

Thanks for that list. I like all those players.

"Fundamental" works too but not as well "prototypical." The former is about having the basic or necessary skills to be a successful PG. We all know Russell has them as he's shown glimpses. The latter is more about the characteristic (height, athletism) or playing style (scoring or passing mindset) of a player.

25/7 would work too. That would put him in the Lebron/Curry category though.... I'm not sure if his ceiling is that high. As for CP3 and the Clippers, that team needs another playmaker imo. DeAndre and Griffin are too one-dimensional.

Again, this is a just a preference of mine. Not really a complaint.

 

The fact that D'Lo can get hot and show he has an offensive game makes me optimistic. Taking a look at draft picks like Thomas Robinson and Wesley Johnson reminds me that we very easily could have whiffed on a number of these picks. It's still too early, but at least we know at least one is turning up

 

this is what i've tried to say at different times in both the ingram and randle threads. the lottery is littered with failures. heaps of them. be grateful we haven't had a mega bust during these lean times.

even if russell isn't towns (or maybe not even porzingis), he still looks like a very solid pick, even considering his draft position (again, look at the list of #2 draft picks over the years). the draft is about conjuring useful players out of nothing, essentially. this and FA are the only routes, and only FA delivers known quantities. statistically, the lakers are due for a bust, but i think the scouting department is vastly underrated among fans and the media. there's a pretty long tradition in lakerland of drafting better than the expected pick value.

anyway, back to russell: count me on team "pgs don't need lots of assists for their teams to be successful".