D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

Why let Indiana fleece us like that?

 

And this is basically the season in a nutshell for most of our young guys. We have talent. Our guys have just been quite inconsistent. The rewarding thing lately has been seeing how much more consistent Ingram has become over the past month plus. Randle and Russell need to look to the rookie and try to gain some of that consistency which is funny because they're a couple/few years older than him.

Amazing game from Russell and many of us have been advocating for a while now to start him and JC together to see what we have for the future of the backcourt. Glad to see it finally happen. Since it went well maybe they were avoiding it to help the tank.

 

We've looked a lot looser in b2b games than we have in about 50 games, so here's to hoping we have turned a corner. Honestly, I predicted 29 wins this season, so I don't care what our final record is - it's bad. What I want to see is that growth the rest of the way.

 

Well there was some statistics that showed the two of them really struggled to get along on defense and their offensive output was sort of hamstrung by a) Clarkson taking a shot every time he touched the ball and b) Russell feeling the responsibility of letting Clarkson take every shot. Luke said they started the game with the intent of having Clarkson initiate and letting Russell go free at the two, but once Russell caught fire everything else sort of went out the window.

I'm with you though 100%. Knowing our team tomorrow against the Clippers Russell will go for 20 points on 18 shots, Randle will have 6 points and 84 rebounds, and Clarkson will get literally turned around defensively. Meanwhile Ingram and Zubac keep growing and chugging along. Their maturity is a pretty stark contrast to what the other kids have shown all year. Still, I'm glad things seem to be improving. The last couple of games have been nice. I'd love to get a win against the Clippers with everyone continuing to gel.

 

Keep it up!

Reminds me a little of the Miami Heat game in MIA where Kobe didn't shoot well and after the game stayed at the arena for 2-3 hours after the game getting shots up.

 

Ship his a** out.

 

Cool stats, but one thing I wonder is how many teenagers have we had on this roster? The teenager influx started with Garnett. Kobe was the next year. Since Kobe (until the last few years) we haven't had a ton of teenagers or players under 21. Let alone players of that age playing major minutes. Russell and/or Randle should be top 3-5 in that category by default.

 

Well... awkward Lakers. Thanks.

 

I think there's something to this, but not as much as you might think.

1. We've had eight teenagers play games before they were 20, since 1963-64. If we bump it to age 20, the list is up to 12.

What's interesting is that these lists are already pretty impressive. Just looking at the "played in a game as a Laker before 20," the list is:
1. Kobe - HOF
2. Bynum - 1B Center until injuries.
3. Ingram
4. Russell
5. Zubac
6. Crittenton - 500 career games, 20 MPG player
7. Farmar - bust
8. Randle

2. How about this one: only 21 players in Lakers history have scored 40+ points in a game. Eight of them are HoF player. The non-HoF players include:
Cedric Ceballos, Jim McMillian, Lou Williams, Nick Young, Bynum, Campbell, Mike McGee, Meeks, Glen Rice, Sedale Threatt, and Nick the Quick.

Ceballos was an All-Star, but he didn't average as many PPG as Russell until his fourth season -at age 24.
McMillian was a career 14-5-3 player.
Lou's a 6MoY
Young is what he is.
Bynum was a beast.
Campbell was a solid NBA player, but he never averaged as many PPG as Russ.
Mike McGee was a journeyman who never averaged as many PPG as Russ is now.
Meeks had one season where he averaged 15.7 PPG. He was 26.
Rice was a three-time all-star, and he was 23 when he averaged 15+ PPG for the first time.
Threatt had a nice NBA career, but he never averaged as many PPG as Russ.
Van Exel was an all-star, and he averaged 17 PPG in his second season, at age 23.

I think that the data clearly suggests that Russell is on an impressive career path. It's an All-Star path.

 

They're feeling it.

 

Good breakdown. I just saw those stats and stopped and thought about our franchise and our under 21 players. We have for the most part been a veteran team for so long, I was just wondering who Russell was actually beating out.

The thing with Russell is the 40 point game. You can't just drop 40 in the NBA without a lot of talent. But because he does this, it makes it that much more confusing when he goes 2-10.

 

I agree, but I think it's part of being young.

In Kobe's second season, he sandwiched 3-19 FGs (8 points total) in games 2 and 3 between 16-31 FGs, 48 points to start the season.

 

"Yeah, but he shoots more threes..."