D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

I vehemently disagree with this statement. As bad as we've looked, it was shine off an apple. New York and Sacramento are literally absolute dumpster fires. There's agents and players saying they never want to play for those teams. Ever. Agents will actively seek other, potentially worse, deals to get out of New York and Sacramento. Even as bad as we've looked, and the Aldridge situation was possibly the lowest, we were never as bad as those two front offices.

As for Philadelphia, they were viewed more positively than us for about a month while Embiid was healthy. Now what? I've seen 2-3 articles in the last week saying," Were we too Quick to Forgive Hinkie?" and "Are the Sixers Really Back"? Remember it was a few weeks ago that Colangelo, who came in to save the franchise, was caught lying about trade offers trying to boost Okafor's value to no avail. Colangelo lied, or at least deliberately misconstrued, the seriousness of the injuries to Embiid (which could have resulted in further injuring the kid) and Simmons. There was half a moment when Philly seemed poised for a comeback, but that moment is almost completely passed. And certainly that moment never existed for Okafor on the inside of all that nonsense.

Again: I'm not defending that play or the kid. I don't know him, he's not a Laker (thankfully), and I have no dog in the fight. I'm just providing a little more context because I believe he's better than that. I've seen a dozen "see what you guys wanted??" posts in various spots and all I'm saying is if he wasn't in one of the worst environments for a professional, he probably wouldn't be THAT bad... just pretty bad. Because nobody is THAT bad except James Harden a couple years ago.

 

Let the subtweeting begin!

 

LA Lakers. We know drama!

 

He's only one man.

 

...and record it for posterity? What can this be all about?

 

I don't know I was kidding.

It could mean he hates the team he's on. I could mean he's stuck in traffic. It could mean he bought a lottery ticket and lost. Who knows?

 

MPG obviously quite a gap. But what this tells me most is that we need to continue to be patient and see how Russell develops.

 

I mean... Kobe was the 2nd leading scorer on what was essentially a 50 win playoff team at age 20 where he would have been an All-Star had the season not been shortened. I think this is a comparison that really ought not to be made. It's a disservice to Russell to try to compare the two.

 

Its not a disservice to Russell if I'm looking at a certain way. I'm not looking at numbers, or factoring in what teams they are on, I'm simply saying this tells me that we'd be wise if possible to give Russell more time to find out what he can become.

 

I can see that. It's just always risky to make those comparisons because everything needs context. Especially since Kobe is so different of a player. A similar comparison that make me you feel even better is a 21 year old Steph Curry on a 26 win Warrior team back in 2009/2010:

17.5 points/ 4.5 rebounds/ 5.9 assists/ 1.9 steals/ 46.2 FG%/ 43.7 3PT%/ 88.5 FT%/ 36.2 minutes

Compared to Russell (I'll use per36 since the minutes are so close from Steph):
19.7 points/ 5 rebounds/ 6.4 assists/ 1.7 steals/ 40 FG%/ 35.4 3PT%/ 77.3 FT%/ 36 min

The key of course being that Russell is actually averaging 14.8 pts/3.7 rbnds/4.8 asts /1.3 stls. Interestingly that Warriors team didn't have much talent. That was Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Raja Bell, Corey Maggette, Vlad Radmanovic, Mikki Moore... and of course Gump.

 

He was maybe the best player for us yesterday but that's not saying much. I hated how lazy the team seemed yesterday and he was guilty of that too. Lazy handling, lazy passes... I understand these Lakers may not have a personal beef with these C Bags, but Dr. Buss is rolling over in his grave after that abysmal showing.

 

Remember when Clarkson and Randle spent all summer working on their outside shot?