D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

Why is that? its incomprehensible. That has to be mental.

 

Randle was terrible because Luke managed him terribly.

Honestly, after 3 years of NBA basketball people just don't care WHY something isn't happening. At some point all that matters is what you actually bring to the table. Sure 22 years of age is still pretty young. But I don't remember many All-Stars still having such an up and down season in their 3rd year.

 

Two really interesting claims here - first the Randle one. Randle is playing his best basketball, from a points, efficiency, and ORtg-DRtg point of view. His PER is at a career best - and I think you're right to blame how has was used. Why not extend that courtesy to Russell? He was smashing it before injury, and he has shown flashes since return from missing 40 games.

As for the second point, how about Gordon Hayward? In this third season, at nearly a full year older than Russell, he had runs like the following: 23, 8, 4, 15, 13, 21, 17, 4; later, he had 6, 22, 5, 15; and he finished the season going 23, 13, 17, 5, 8, 9.

He was literally the second person I looked at to see numbers. The first was Ibaka, who was (I hadn't realized) never an all-star. I'm sure we could find many more.

 

I agree, but Kawhi was always an excellent defender. Russell will never have that going for him, at least not to that level. He could develop into an adequate defender though.

Still, from the POV of offense, these things happen - Russell's still young; in fact, he's younger than Kuzma and Hart.

Giannis in his season in which he was mostly 21 - as BKREF calculates them, the same season as Russell this season: 16, 9, 33, 9, 17, 21, 17, 8, 9, 7, 12. Then 15, 9, 20, 22, 4, 11, 27, 14, 11. Then 18, 5, 8, 29, 19, 28, 14. Again, I think these things happen.

I love the eye test for lots of things, but stats really can tell us when we're making exceptions for or against players.

 

Exactly.

 

Oh wow, did the Nets win? They didn’t? Huh. I guess there’s more than one side to the floor.

 

Classic. I expect nothing less

 

Dinwiddie runs the point for them.

 

I’m just jokin’ around. I don’t follow the Nets at all, for all I know his defense could be improved this year. I don’t miss the guy though, and I really liked him, I often honestly forget he’s in the league. That’s what happens with me when you’re on the Nets or Grizzlies or Pistons, a few other teams, I forget those teams exist.

 

I feel you. Saw Ed Davis in a boxscore a few days ago. He’s in the nba or something.

 

trodgers, you are probably right. One thing I can say to my defense is that Russell is a scorer first and scorer second. Thats what he contributes to a team. If his scoring is off, he usually doesn't bring anything to the table and gets yanked.

As for others...I'm not sure what Hayward had going for him except for scoring either, so thats a valid point. He is a solid playmaker for a SF but not exactly somebody who impacts the game by making plays for others.

And you are also right that Russell was on fire before the injury. You can go back in this thread and I was one of the guys praising him for having great numbers. I guess I'm just frustrated that he doesn't make that next step to elevate a team to a certain degree.

 

Not probably...definitely.

Russell would be a very good playmaker for a SG and could focus on scoring like his instincts usually urge him to. The problem to me is that a great PG has a higher value and higher impact than a great SG.

 

I was called a hater for such a thought.

Him next to Lonzo would have been very interesting. Not sure the personalities mesh well though.