D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

I was having a similar conversation yesterday with some work friends. I feel sorry for him because of his mental issues on the court. I hope he gets passed these and becomes a dependable player for a Franchise. I just don’t want it to be ours because there’s a good chance that he will remain this way.

 

i'm with this guy:



russell had a terrible series against denver. he played well at other times in the playoffs and well overall. other players with similar performances (e.g., mpj) aren't being lambasted.

i'm not trying to make his agent's case for him, and i hope we retain him at a discount, but the idea that you toss everything out because he played like s*** against denver doesn't make sense to me.

 

i think this is what i'm talking about?

gabe vincent's a minus defender. (even bigger minus on offense, btw)

mpj's a minus defender. (who disappeared as badly as dlo if not worse in the finals...wide open threes just clanging away for a guy paid A LOT only to be a deadly shooter)


the narratives aren't there on other guys. their stars carried them despite their failings; ours didn't this time.

i get it. he's been bad in the playoffs before, and was bad against denver and inconsistent otherwise. but the story is out of line with production, or at least with how stories are generally told about other players on other teams.

i'm perfectly comfortable with him being the pg with the lebron/AD star arrangement. he'll have more good than bad games next time out, i think.

 

Not only is DLo a one-way player, but he also scores in a very specific way. He’s not going to beat you off the dribble in isolation and it’s hard for him to get all the way to the rim in P&R. He needs that pull-up three to be going in, the threat of him taking and making that shot sets up his whole offensive game.

He’s the best realistic PG option we have this off-season, so I want him brought back on a shorter deal. If he plays well to start the regular season maybe we end up flipping him for something good.

 

I’m just happy he wasn’t Brick and a big reason we even made the play in, let alone the WC

 

Are we over valuing Dlo because we came from Russ? It's like tasting sour for so long and then the first time we tasted anything sweet, we are in love.

If we can keep DS for cheap, I rather take DS. Granted we shouldn't let Dlo walk, use his salary for a position we are weak in. I think with AR and Lebron, we should find a good center.

 

I think he needs to make sure his pay is in line with expectations for his role, or he will get moved on again.

 

i think the badness of his defense is overstated. it's not good, though; i'm not going to argue for it. this happens with secondary players, though, and his offense is very good and a good fit with the rest of the team. if we could get a player who plays offense like him and is a great defender, we'd have to trade lebron or AD for that guy. if we could get a player who is like him (not a defender) and has a history of big time playoff performances (e.g., jamal murray), we'd have to do the same.

i think he actually did a good job in both the regular season and the playoffs of doing more of this. if he was as limited as you suggest, there's simply no way he'd put up the offensive numbers he has--not only here but as basically a #1 option at other times.

probably by a longshot. like "the rest are bench players" longshot. i'll take him on a short deal for more money (up to 25 per) or a long deal for less (18-20) per year.

i want people to hold DS to the same standard. again, this is what i'm talking about. schroder literally threw playoff games away with bad decision making as the primary ballhandler in the clutch. we have years of data supporting that this will continue to happen. he's not a starting pg.

as for centers, i really want people to look at both what ham has said and done with lineups and strategy and ask yourself if spending on a center makes sense. if ham were fired, i could see it. but he'll be here next year, so i'm not looking at any center that isn't a backup who can expect to sit some entire games depending on matchups.

i think he doesn't care and just wants as much money as possible, which isn't an indefensible position.

and tbh, the only way he's NOT at risk to be traded again is if we sign him to a bad deal for us, as he'll become unmovable. as we've demonstrated, we'll move anyone not named lebron or AD at the drop of a hat. maybe reaves joins that list this year, but nobody else will be safe.

i believe teams can negotiate with their own FAs starting now, so let's hope we come to a sensible number here and then hope for the best if and when the playoffs come around next year.

 

Athletes have short careers, but they also make more in a few years than most will experience in a lifetime.

And I agree he doesn't care. He's more concerned with fashion. He's more concerned with his hair. He's more concerned with sponsorships.
He doesn't care about personal fitness or he'd have some semblance of muscle tone on his torso. He gets by on pure talent. But when the men show up in the playoffs who are not only just as talented, but work hard, and are willing to fight for theirs, little boys like DLO get exposed.

he's talented, but if he doesn't care to take his craft seriously, caring about max money rings a little hollow. If he's that determined to have max money, let him walk and call his bluff. He is not irreplaceable. Ask Dennis how making that mistake works out.

 

One of the issues with Dlo is he seemed to get tunnel vision with the ball. When he put it on the floor it felt he gonna shoot no matter what. He wasn't really trying to pass off the dribble.

 

He did, but I think its all set up by the pull-up three. DLo isn't the quickest or most athletic guy in the first place and he plays a pretty slow and methodical game. He's not blowing by anyone in isolation, and in the P&R he needs the threat of the pull-up three or the midrange jump shot. If the defender is selling out to stop those and chasing him over screens, then he can get a half-step on a guy and use his strength/craft to get to his floaters or all the way to the rim. But if defenders aren't selling out to chase him off of those pull-up threes, either because he's not making them or he's not taking them because its in his head, now he can't get that half-step on his man and resorts to the contested midrangers.

 

seems like a straw man here, as i'm sure he's not asking max nor expecting it.

i feel like he made plenty of nice passes off the dribble throughout his time with us, but i don't have time to go digging through the tape.

 

I feel like it was only in the Nuggets series he showed tunnel vision. I think he was in his head trying to get his game off. He stopped letting the game come to him.

 

I expect DLO to be here in the fall but crazier things have happened. I think his overall performance here was what we needed despite ending on a bad note against the Nuggets.

I expect better opportunities to trade him to potentially upgrade the team to present themselves during the season as its still hard for me to imagine a team hard capping themselves to bring him in.

 

i agree except that i think people make too much of the hard cap. most teams spend below that without it being triggered, simply because they don't want to pay luxury tax (hard cap is 7 million above that). only 7 teams spent over 170 last year, and only 10 spent over 160.

iow, the hard cap is only a concern to a few teams.

again, though, i agree in general that it's unlikely he's signed and traded.

 

On Anthony Irwin's pod today, he said that he's heard the Lakers aren't happy about how DLO handled the sharing of info regarding his injury at the end of the season. I get it, it was very obvious he was only looking out for #1 and his bag this summer. I don't think the late scratches sat well with the team. Load managing when he could've played and it didn't necessarily build up roll over minutes for the post season.

That + playoff performance seems to be shaping how they see him as an asset.

You can discredit Irwin's opinion, but I trust him on sourced Intel because one of his weekly guests is a member of the Lakers front office. And it coincides with what Buha has reported regarding DLO.

 

Hollinger's BOARD$ valuation has him as the 3rd best FA PG, behind Ky and FVV