D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

Probably for the best. I'm sick of him and he'll probably do better elsewhere. I'm okay with that logic. I'm not okay with him spreading all that excrement on the floor and calling it basketball.

 

You guys would do a hell of a job as mentors. I'd love to hear stories about how you build up people around you.

 

I completely agree. Now, Luke didn't make all those decisions - in fact, he probably made few of them. But DA was playing very well - and even had a useful suggestion for trying to give Luke what he wanted. Instead, they benched him. Makes no sense.

 

BTW, this line I'm pushing isn't an attack on a particular person. It's an attack on this bizarre old school way of doing things. Just because you think you'd respond well to a certain type of motivation doesn't mean a) that you're right or b) that that's the best way to approach a situation. None of us have been in the position these young guys are in, with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, at age 19-22, in the national spotlight.

For every Kobe, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who were brow-beaten by coaches who didn't become great, who didn't develop a killer instinct, and who count against the idea that we can simply punitively approach players and think that this will somehow make them better.

It's very much akin to the "I was spanked and turned out fine" type of approach to parenting.

 

Tell me what he should say.

 

See? Wise words!

 

I really hope people don't believe this s***. Read a book. Learn about effective communication. Explore how to bring out the best in others. It's not that hard, honestly.

To the point: when did he act like a child? When he was posting 22-5-4? When he was benched?

 

So when he's interviewed, he should not answer? Got it. I think the fine is 2K a night for skipping the media sessions.

 

This is just stupid. If we wanted to trade the kid this offseason we should have kept him right where he was. You move him to the bench and he plays like crap and that's supposed to help his trade value? JC is not our future PG, evaluating his play isn't worth benching Russell for no clearly evident reason and making his role even less clear. I disagreed earlier in the year when therealdeal said he wouldn't be surprised if the drama with management (Jim) was affecting the young players on the court. Now I believe I was wrong, the instability in our franchise is all these kids have ever known, they aren't Kobe, they can't just play through everything like a machine.