D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

His main as a PG is he tends not to adapt his decision making to the opponent defense reaction.

If he decided he's going to shoot before the play happens , he's going to shoot regardless of how the defense plays him .

Same thing for the pass ...

It will come with more experience

 

Nah. That's BS. His shot wasn't falling consistently and he had one very costly turnover but his play wasn't that bad. This is just the usual piling on with Russell. He and the rest of the team definitely played with heart and effort. Even with the bad shooting and turnovers it took a monster effort by Westbrook for the Thunder to seal the deal.

 

his laziness with the ball is infuriating. it's james harden-esque. his defense isn't quite harden-esque, but last night it was bordering on it. his defense is more lillard-esque.

anyway, i could probably live with that stuff if he was a better scorer. he's been missing everything inside the arc, and he hasn't improved his finishing at the rim to the degree i'd hoped.

despite all that, i think he's clearly become the lakers' best player and is the best hope for a perennial allstar on the roster. i think this is why his mistakes are frustrating--it's obvious he can do most of these things (e.g., not commit a lazy live ball turnover for a dunk the other way in crunch time, finish layups).

 

Westbrook is a touch match-up for anybody; he's a superstar. Period. He's struggling with his shot, but I think he played solid outside of a couple of boneheaded plays. The spacing in the starting lineup isn't great, additionally.

As LakersFilmRoom pointed out he's pushing his shot from the mid-range area; he not shooting it. He's doing a good job of creating shots, and he's even drawing second defenders at times right now. Everything right now just needs to be more consistent and efficient, IMO. I think he's been playing well considering the circumstances.

 

He played hard so I can't agree with Mike's assessment. He made some nice passes, but no one seemed to be able to find the basket.

However, he made some bone-head plays as usual, and his defense was bad. I'm most frustrated with how trigger happy he is. He's been taking long threes early in the shot clock and it pisses me off.

 

I like the confidence, but I think we need him to lead by running the offense more than jacking up quick threes .

 

I was kind of confused what all the up roar was about that I saw from some people. I mean Westbrook is on another level. This dude might average a triple double or come pretty close to it. Just looking at the box score the Lakers were in that game until they pulled away in the fourth. Yes I get it's frustrating losing games, but we weren't out classed start to finish like last season and that's encouraging.

 

I think Russell is doing just fine, and I agree with you. We're competing and as we grow and learn to play with each oteer, get more familiar with the system, and build some continuity with each other, those losses will turn into W's.

 

He needs to get abused on the court some to learn faster and not worry about being yanked without instruction like "he who shall not be named" used to do.

 

Agreed on all accounts.

 

Agreed. I prefer Phil and Luke's approach. Leave the youngsters in the game. Don't call a timeout and let them suffer the consequences. Being embarrassed on the court by better players is often the best way for young players to learn.

 

Even when he's missing shots, he's still looking to get others involved. He'll take a jumper here and there to show that he's not afraid of being cold, which is fine.

The thing is, he's getting good shots. In the Luke-Kerr offense, those shots are decent looks. He may not be the shooter that Curry is, but he can still knock those down at a decent clip.

We may need to start looking for wing defender too to pair along him and Clarkson. Someone to pick up the other teams best player so that he doesn't have to expend so much energy on that end of the court.

 

We have that wing defender. He plays PG for our 2nd unit.

 

And I was going to mention it, but we need multiple ones so that we are capable of switching.

Golden State luxury of being able to throw Iggy and Draymond at guys is invaluable. I think Luke is trying to groom Randle into being a Draymond type, but he's not even close yet, and it's burning my eyes.

 

I hear you. It's still early but so far the Randle at the 5 thing doesn't seem to work, and it's because Randle unlike the nutcracker is nowhere near the defender the nutcracker is.

 

What's Marcus Banks doing these days?

 

I would like to see him get hot in the 2nd half one of these days. Since we're competitive we'll have some close games. The next step for him is to start trading baskets in crunch time.

 

Man what's it gona take for this guy to realize he aint all that?