D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Opted In!

I was thinking along the same lines of having Russell with another starter material at the other guard spot much like how Lillard and McCollum operate in Portland. Or maybe like Wall and Beal too. Russell though can be ball dominant so ideally it would be a catch and shoot player who can break down a defender off the dribble.

 

Yeah I'm torn. I know the offense runs smoothly when Russell takes charge like he did yesterday, but I also don't want him to be ball dominant. I'm not sure he can shoulder that load. First step is keeping that pick at all.

 

All I want him to do right now is feed the post.

Way too much of our offense is guard dominant and taking long shots. Zu is good enough to demand the ball down low consistently until the league adjusts.

 

Russell doesn't have to be but he does have that tendency being the focal point at Ohio State. He likes to be in control even if he can be mixed bag at it. It is still an overall a learning (and growth) experience for him. Injuries really slowed Russell's consistency on top of his laissez faire attitude. Agree with you that I see Ingram facilitating more not that he isn't already. At this juncture, he is a better decision maker.

 

Russell, Fultz, Ingram, Randle, Zubac would be extremely interesting.

 

^On a side note, this makes the Clarkson situation that much more confounding. I had notions of him starting with Russell to form a competent back-court duo. By all accounts, in the offseason, Clarkson worked on his defense, his perimeter game and fitness. He was our most consistent, evolving player going in. The resurrection of Young, Williams' scoring probably factored into all of it. We all clamored for him to start ahead of Williams early on too...

 

Agree, then again Zu has a better and varied low post game than Moz so it takes some adjustment given the relatively small sample of games they've played together. On the same vein, the plan should be the same for Randle as well just to keep him engaged on the floor.

 

Not just Russell...the bench production took a dive when Nance sustained an injury. We were doing just fine learning along until the hits started coming. Young, Black...Randle of late. Tough to maintain chemistry and consistency throughout. The squad's collectively young age and relative inexperience showed. The lack of veteran leadership was glaring in maintaining leads or keeping poise when the games are in the balance. This is where I want to see Russell mature as a player to match the talent he's flashed. I think both he and Ingram will be the co-leaders of this group as we move onward...

 

19.5-10.5-7.0 over his last two.

 

He's playing well, but this last game the turnovers just destroyed us. I'm not saying he was the only one responsible but he had 7 TOs! We can't win with that. The game before was arguably his best of the season and he really cut those down.

 

His turnovers are a dagger to my heart.

 

It's seriously crazy making. I don't know what he has to do to cut those down but he just has to. Looking forward to Magic taking him under his wing and working with him.

 

Sad but true, and I'm a Randle fan. He is so reluctant to shoot outside. The spacing with Deng/Randle/Moz is just terrible. Deng doesn't help this matter at all because he just sucks.