D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

His shots were straight up bricks Westbrook style not even close, he was really push to being uncomfortable

 

Dlo has been playing pretty good ball when he can be on the court. He just needs to stay healthy enough to build up a rhythm. With that said, that was ugly...lol.

 

Yeah, Bane and Brooks are two physical guys who can really make him uncomfortable out there. Hopefully Ham has a plan and a counter for that.

 

So much for revenge game

 

I’m gonna chalk last night’s game up as an outlier. I look for him to rebound going forward.

 

Take that .... Mintz!!

 

Grizz shut him down last year in the playoffs. He looked terrible, scored like 10pts on 30% shooting (didn't check the stats but that's what it felt like last year when i saw a game or two). If the same thing happens this series, i say "good riddance".

 

I think we expect these coaches and players to be like football where they have a week or more to get ready for an opponent.
Minny knows DLo but the Lakers really don't and they don't have much time to get ready a counter. So Minny definitely had an advantage here

Seems the ideal way to use him if they get all physical with him is to put Rui in there instead of Vando and use him off ball where he doesn't have to go straight at these physical dudes getting up on him. They hopefully should be better prepared for Memphis and obviously in a series more to adjust

 

That was a horrible and lazy pass by LeBron - not going to fault D-Lo for that one.


With that said, I also think that we cannot sit D-Lo for as long as we did. Yes, schroder played very well, but I don't think that should be the norm if D-Lo is struggling. You need to allow him to also play through it. Yes, his shots weren't falling, but he was still getting other guys set up, which is important for our offense. he had 8 assists and only 1 turnover which I like because it felt like he was getting guys easy buckets or making the right reads.

If we are going to rely on Schroder like that, we're not going to go very far. In a play-in setting, Ham made the right decision because we just neeeded to win this game to clinch 7th. But I think in the playoffs, we have to PLAY D-Lo and let him work through it because he's still going to space the floor (like he did on that last play where schroder hit the 3), he's still a threat to hit the 3 ball, and he's also another playmaker that can set up the offense.

yes he was terrible last night and he was terrible against grizz last year, but that shoudl not be a reason you don't play him or you sit him for 20 minutes straight or whatever Ham did last night.

 

i'm willing to pass that off as just an off night, but i really hope he doesn't make us wish we had traded for conley instead

 

If the Lakers lost people wouldn't be so forgiving as having a off night

 

won't go that far. but it would establish a pattern and drop his contract value considerably. like knock 7-8 per off if he has one or two more games like that.

this was the saving grace for me. at least he wasn't spraying the ball over the floor and giving up transition buckets.

above said, i actually agreed with limiting his minutes last night and was surprised he saw any time after the third quarter, tbh. he was shook. it was obvious from the cheap seats.

nope. and i say this as the guy who lobbied hard to trade for conley when everyone told me he was done (obviously not). conley gets hurt a ton and is already on borrowed time in his mid-30s as a small guard who needs quickness to be effective. i still take dlo over conley; i just didn't think it was possible at the time.

yeah, he was lucky in that regard. there'd be tar and feathers today had we not improbably won that game.

 

LA is his jam. Hopefully he takes less to stay here than he can get on the open market. Because he's not worth the max, and he may wilt under the pressure of trying to be the man if the Jazz get in his head for a play-in game.

 

My biggest worry individually for the matchup against Memphis.

I predict he loses his starting spot to Schroder at some point of the series and fans won't want him to stay.

 

Didn't seem he pouted about the benching. Think this goes in his favor as he seems like a guy his teammates like playing with.
Part of me wonders though should he have been more upset? At least at himself, the need to prove himself?

Kind of clarifying moment for him - can he do something special or is he just going to have a nice career but nothing really memorable