D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Opted In!

Here's how I see the Russell/Ball PG/SG thing.

Russell has the talent to be the better pg or sg than ball. He is more than capable of being a floor general and also more than capable of being a score first combo guard. It's not about talent. It's about leadership and comfortability with Russell. I think he struggled as a floor general at times (he was actually quite good considering his age and lack of coaching stability) not due to a lack of skill, but due to not being comfortable knowing when to be a floor general that scores when needed (CP3) vs a scorer that initiates an offense when needed (Harden). Having to drive in both lanes is what made him look bad at times.

That being said, what makes Ball a great fit is that he is capable of playing in either lane, but he's going to more naturally gravitate to the floor general who scores when needed lane. He seems more naturally mature, bball wise than Russell, commanding respect and inspiring teammates. He seems more comfortable making the simple pass and setting teammates up, whereas Russell is an amazing passer, but looks for the flashy forced pass, or the looking away for no reason pass (wtf, dude).

So whos the pg and whos the sg? Neither. Both are combo guards who are going to score and initiate plenty. Put a gun to my head and i'd say Russell is a 60:40 scorer:facilitator whereas Ball is a 60:40 facilitator:scorer.

 

Have you watched Ball play PG? I can't understand how you can say Russell has the talent to be a better pg than Ball. I agree with SG because I've seen Russel catch fire and his shot can be effortless.

Ball might get a 60/40 split in the first month but it will be more like 80/20 before the season is over.

 

punk nailed it: i think russell was asked to do different things at different times. he's more of a harden than a paul, but the lakers don't really play either way. he's actually a lot like curry, but less experienced than second year curry, who was 2-3 three years older. i still contend that he could play that role, but curry has three other three point shooters on the floor and russell had maybe one if he was lucky. it just changes everything.

but as much as the modern nba claims to be about the dunks and threes, as i said much earlier in the thread--you better have someone who can score in between those if you want to beat the good teams. russell can do that. he may be the only one on the roster right now. and the ball is going to have to be in that guy's hands a lot, whoever he is.

 

I guess a very narrow definition of talent, omitting maturity and leadership, and speaking more to skill. Russell has amazing vision and passing accuracy and a knowledge of how to orchestrate an offense at a very young age. There were times when the offense ran beautifully with Russell and fell apart with everyone else. Where Ball has him beat as a better pg is that his talent is close to Russell's, but his maturity and willingness to make the simple pass is better.

 

we have yet to see ball make the "simple pass" against pro defenses. i'm not saying he can't, but we're assuming A LOT.

 

what will you say if Ball is like that? He's already got a rap song and obviously the shoes...he's gotta get out and be seen so he can spread his brand

 

oh, and to chime in on the off-court stuff, i've said many times that i suspect russell has some off-court issues that seep onto the court. at this point, you can only hope maturity kicks in at some point in the near future. word is that harden scaled back big time on his partying this year, and it was a reason for his bounce-back season.

 

Lavar will be on TMZ more than Lonzo

 

It's called the Kardashian curse, lucky for DAR that Kendall had no interest haha

 

True. I guess I mean not unnecessarily forcing flashy passes or making careless lazy passes. It's not that Ball has greater skills than Russell, thus preventing these mistakes. I'm just speculating based on personality that Ball doesn't seem like this type of passer.

 

Yeah my main worry with Russell permanently at the 1 is his tendency to be lazy with the ball.

 

Yeah, no one is saying he can't play the 1, but he's sloppy with the ball (both handling and passing) and he can become tentative at times. A lot of those weaknesses no longer become an issue when slotted at the 2.

 

other weaknesses--chief among them being lack of ideal size for the position--become highlighted at sg.

everyone talks about the smallball era, but the guards aren't getting smaller (really, neither are the bigs in general, but that's for another discussion). russell's pick and roll, passing, and post-up abilities are all diminished by the positional move in one way or another.

i reversed the argument already: i'm not saying he can't play sg. i'm saying he's better as a pg. i think the experimenting at the end of the season is driving the narrative in ways that aren't warranted. russell's had as good or better stretches playing pg. the team's best stretch last year came with him at pg.

people are also misunderstanding my "simple pass" comment. the point is that what are simple passes in the pac 12 may not be in the nba. hence, i don't know if ball still makes the "simple pass" because they may not be there. people are crazy about those outlets, but opposing teams have to be sleeping more often for that stuff. the athletes on the other side of the ball are bigger and cover a lot of ground, too. i can say from being a pg in my youth, when the defenders are suddenly 4 inches taller everywhere (and faster), the geometry changes fundamentally. we've seen russell have to adjust. we haven't seen ball have to adjust. i think it's why one is jason kidd and the other has somehow become jason terry.

 

i don't like the statistical support here. small sample size and during a time of year when teams aren't playing well. i'll grant that russell shoots better on the catch, but pretty much everyone does. i'm guessing ball will be an even more dramatic case in that sense.

in other words, that piece doesn't move my needle on how russell should play. it's correct in that ball and russell would benefit offensively from each other's presence, though.

if this were true, i'd have to believe it would have already happened. i'm probably one of the bigger believers in russell, but butler's an established allstar, deng's an absolute albatross, and the 28 isn't worth much.

 

LoL that trade is such BS. Talk about click bait! If that trade happened it would be Xmas in July!

 

yeah no... I call BS.