D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

7 minutes played. Russell must have done something opposite to the coaches instructions.

Especially since he started again the next game.

Last 5 games he has been mediocre though. 11.8/4.6/7 on 36% shooting and 30% 3p FG and 66% FTs.

The thing that always sticks out to me is that none of his 3 coaches so far have played him more than the typical 24-28 minute range. He gets yanked rather regularly which kills his minute averages.

He is playing 25 mpg. Thats kind of telling.

 

I'd say his inconsistency is a bigger factor than his health.

 

I’m not sure. I’d love to see him play more minutes, but his minutes have to be put in context.

This season, he's at 25.7 per game, which is 6th on the team, and the most MPG is 30.0. As a starter, however, he's at 28.0. That's 1 minute per game from 3rd on the team.

Last year, he was at 28.7, and 29.2 was the highest on the team.

The year before, he was at 28.2, tied for third on the team. Only JC played more than 28.5 MPG.

He's consistently been among the top minute earners on his team, especially when healthy.

 

People just don’t know how to train. LBJ ran 200 Miles.

 

Why stop there? Rock and Jock ten pointers?

 

But you also have to take into consideration, that he usually plays with a bunch of inferior players. So just because nobody averages more than lets say 30 mpg, doesn't necessarily mean that the coach doesn't want to. It also indicates that nobody deserves it.

Russell was supposed to be THE best player on the Lakers and THE best player on the Nets. You're forgiven to assume that he is a leader of the team and the go to guy in the fourth. He regularly gets yanked in the 4th quarter which is troubling in its own way. It used to be the same with the Lakers, Luke and Scott likewise.

He is averaging 6.7 mpg in the 4th which is 6th on the Nets. He is also shooting just 39% in the 4th and has a +/- of -2 in the 4th. At the same time he is 1st in TOs in the 4th with 0.7.

After Okafor (-5.5) Russell has the worst plus/minus (-4.8) on the Nets. Just not really very encouraging.

 

Russell with a very good game but damn...Crabbe was red hot.

 

21-11-6 and two steals. Big +, too.

 

Some of that ball handling he displayed and that quick pass to crabbe on the cut to the hoop was impressive.

 

Done for the season. His stats are almost identical to his last season with the Lakers. At the beginning of the year it looked like he might make a bigger jump but in the end there wasn't enough progress. Certainly the injury comes into play but that also seems to be part of his "game" as he is injury prone.