D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

The word they were looking for is "poise"

 

I'm so looking forward to seeing DLO in a real offense with a competent coach. From the little flashes I've seen I think he's going to be a special player and watching him makes me want stay around when Kobe's gone. Hopefully the the front office won't screw up for the 4th time in a row.

 

Russell made some beautiful passes last night. Just so crisp, so fluid, so under control, and he's that guy for this franchise. No doubt in my mind. He's gonna be a superstar. A guy who'll be a great all around point guard.

 

I'm wondering if the NBA 3 is a little long for him as of now.

He's hit a couple every now and then, but it seems like he's falling short on those being so used to the college 3. Not to mention, the fatigue factor that sets in over the course of an NBA speed game.

Just a note as he develops. He's not shooting as well as I hoped he would, but in time.

 

i'm really not worried about his shooting. as others have mentioned, his shots are always right on line, just a little short. that's just strength and conditioning. i'd obviously like to see a higher % from 3 but it seems like it's short every single time. that's very fixable.

 

Russ reminds me of Chris Paul in that aspect. He can score the ball whenever he wants, but he'd much rather make a play for a teammate to get him an easier look and involved and into the game. Because he has that ability you would like to see D'Angelo be more aggressive.

 

It sucks that JC and Julius got to be on the floor while Kobe pulled out one more vintage performance down the stretch tonight. Russ could've used that experience and feeling while on the floor with him.

 

Not gonna lie, during summer league and early this season, I felt like I was deluding myself into buying into the DAR hype. I had heard all these things about him, but seen none of it.

I'm glad that now I can genuinely say that I've seen enough flashes of potential from him to the point where I'm not worried. He's actually a lot closer than I thought. If he gets his legs under him a bit more on the three point shot, and his teammates actually finish his passes, he'd be putting up good enough numbers to be in the ROY conversation IMO.

 

He had some pretty aggressive drives to the hoop, that was great to see.

 

That's why I don't think people should draw such early conclusions. You had people talking about Okafor and how egregious it was that the Lakers took D'Angelo over Jahlil and we've seen how his play has dropped off a bit. No idea why D'Angelo was benched again, but he's gotta get stronger in his legs because he had zero on his jumper today. Definitely good to see him attack more and not just settle. Good to see him not back down from one of the best point guards in the game in John Wall.

 

Something I just realized is that people talk about him not showing fire/passion on the court and how it is a negative. I think it's actually a positive for our future big 3. Randle and Clarkson show that passion, that fire on the court and I think DAR will be a perfect balance to that. No matter how jacked up those two, DAR will always be calm collected and running the show. Probably the quality you WANT in your PG.

Fish was always calm in the moment and helped balance the craziness that was Kobe. Long story short, a negative elsewhere is a positive here because he fits in nicely mentally with Randle/JC.

 

Yea he has an excellent nose for the ball. I didn't expect that.

 

Those shots he's always short on will fall with repitition, glad they are mostly short instead of being completely off. Looks like he's slowly figuring it all out. Would like to see more assists but the rebounding is a pleasant surprise.

 

Solid young player. Very happy with what I see from our three youngins.

Now if they just had a decent coach to teach them the game of basketball....

 

Yeah he seems more and more confident each game with his handles and his jukes and fakes. Exciting to watch. Maybe ole Logo knew what he was talking about even as young as DAR is. He can spot that stuff. Ryan West learned from the best and we have him here with the Lakers even if they screwed up letting Jerry get away.