D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

Man some of you guys bringing up Okafor. I'm not sure why you have to tear down a kid to build one up.

Any who.

WOW. Hey I'm glad to eat crow on this kid and I'll do it. I was wrong. I thought it would take a lot of time for him to get into the NBA game. He's so thin that I thought the NBA game would beat him up. I was 100% wrong. The NBA today isn't nearly as physical as it used to be so thinner kids (Porzingis, Russell, and Towns) can all showcase their talent much faster than they could in the past. That's awesome news for us. Russell is much more NBA ready than I had thought and while it may take a year or two for games like this to be a nightly occurrence, just seeing this kind of talent out there is so refreshing it brings a tear to your eyes.

I don't care that it was only one game. I don't care that it was against one of the few teams in the NBA maybe worse than us. That was an amazing performance and dear lord I hope it's a coming out party. I hope this is something we see now on a nightly basis or at least this kind of confidence.

He has such an unorthodox release on his shot. He somehow gets tremendous arc on his jumper without jumping much AND without following through the way most kids are taught. I didn't think he'd be able to get that jumper off in the NBA because he has no extension on it and doesn't get off the floor, but what he did instead shorten the release. It's amazing how clean his shot is without "proper" follow through.

edit- I've also got to say those Curry comparisons aren't so crazy. In fact, I think he's got a higher ceiling than Curry as an overall player. I don't know if there'll ever be another shooter quite like Steph, but Steph isn't going to post you up or play great defense. With D'Angelo's 6'5" frame and longer arms, he can be at least an average defender. It also gives him the size advantage over 95% of other PGs in the NBA. If he can approximate Steph's shooting, he's going to be a special special player in this league.

 

THREE ANGELO HUSTLE

Last 22 games, 28.1 minutes, 14.9 points, 3.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds
47/44/71 shooting slash
6.15 scoring efficiency
3.20 passing efficiency
2.04 hustle efficiency
71.8 positional efficiency (73 at wing)

 

Games like this are why I sit through all the crappy games. You never know when one of our rookies is going to explode. So happy for Russ. Great game. Hopefully all the rookies can build a rhythm together going forward and come out blazing next season.

 

This DAR kid is kinda good, right?

 

Of course, the kid is a future star player. Need to develop him as quickly as possible. If we could just get one really good player to join DAR, Randle and Clarkson, we could actually be good. Need some role players too, but I am not too worried about that.

 

Tried to find one in Google. Didn't find any.

 

He does have a similar game to Curry, but I think he will drive more. Not that Curry needs to drive as a 3 pointer seems to be the same as a layup for him.

 

Kinda. I need to confirm with Scott first to be sure.