D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

What does it mean? What's okafor's upside? Be honest. What's Russell's?

Nba Drfat dot Net has Penny/Roy for Russell and Al Jefferson/Brook Lopez for Okafor. Penny and Roy stuffed the star sheet and could take over games. Lopez is a good scorer. Jefferson is an elite post player. Neither led a team nor could.

 

Okafor's is NOT Duncan. Did you watch Duncan in college? He was one of the best defenders ever.

 

Well, not to be down on Okafor, because he's who I wanted as well, but he had issues/flaws too. Towns seemed to be the only player everyone was saying can do it all. There was concern about Okafor's defense, and a 51% free throw average is not good. He'd have had to improve that big time or be a liability at the end of games. That said I'd still have taken him if it were my choice, but I guess I gotta trust Mitch on this one. Defense, conditioning, free throw shooting, these things can be worked on, improved, coached on. Can't teach size though, and IMO you can't teach most bigs to have all the offensive moves and polished game Okafor already has, as well as his vision at passing out of double teams.

But, we went with Russell, so I gotta hope he justifies the pick in time. We may look back in a few years, or even one year and see this was a mistakes, or we might look back and see it was brilliant, too early to say. I guess in the end, as much as I wanted Okafor, I trust Mitch, and I trust Jerry West's opinion, and I'm just thankful we even got a top 3 talent. We could just as easily have lost that pick. I'm finding some comfort in that taking Russell is wayyyyy better than not having that top 5 pick at all.

 

I'm definitely with you on how bummed I am for Okafor. He definitely wanted to be a Laker more than any other kid. I think he wanted this more than Randle did last year. It was really, really rough watching him deal with the rejection. Just really tough to see a young man heartbroken like that.

The other side of the coin is: the Lakers knew all this too. They knew they were about to crush this young man's dream. They knew he wanted to be here and would give his all for us. Still they picked D'Angelo because they saw a kid who like you said would go anywhere and they thought: "Man this kid will go anywhere and be a STAR in the league." They were so convinced by his abilities that they let go of what looked like a marriage made in heaven to me. That speaks volumes. Then when you throw in the fact that around the league nobody who watches these two play up close is saying "that's a bad decision".

There has to be something up close that makes people think one way about Okafor and one way about Russell. There has to be or none of this makes sense.

 

If scoring were only a question of size and strength, I'd be on board with that argument. Alas, it cuts very little wood here.

I don't know what you, @LTLakerFan said about Duncan. I was responding to Real.

Is Okafor's ceiling higher than Brook's? Maybe, but I can't see that it is by much. Brook is a 20 PPG scorer in the NBA, which is incredibly rare for a big. BTW, I didn't make up those comparisons. NBA Draft.Net did.

 

I'm saying that was his ceiling comparison. Heck when they asked Duncan even Duncan said he looked like Duncan when he was dunkin' the ball. (sorry I had to)

I'm saying that was his potential to me. I didn't think he'd ever reach that height, but there was a height there for him to reach from everything I saw. On the flip side is Russell going to ever get to his peak which most (even Russell) peg as Steph Curry? I don't think so. I think really that shouldn't be his goal anyway, it should be Ginobili or Harden, but still will he reach those lofty goals? From what I saw no...

But Mitch disagrees and I'm going to trust Mitch. I'm not down on the pick like LJ. I'm down that we went for the splashy move instead of the safe one, but hey it's LA. That's more our move than the safe move.

 

I wanted Okafor. I'll get over it.

We got Russell. I'm sure I'll grow to love him.

It's not like we skipped Okafor and drafted a scrub instead.

Every GM had Okafor and Russell 2 and 3 after Towns.

I hope Okafor has a great career and feel bad for him - he looked and sounded like he really wanted to be a Laker. But at the end of the day, I'm rolling with the Laker.

Prove Mitch right Russell.

 

"Looking like Duncan dunking the ball" =/= "Duncan's potential." Right? Duncan is an elite two-way player. No one has called Okafor elite on defense.

Duncan's Scouting Report makes it clear that there were no doubts.

Dunan was older, for sure, but I'm not sure why we should expect that he'll suddenly become an ELITE defensive prospect.

 

Do you think that right now Okafor is a better offensive player than Brook Lopez?

 

Mitch is a cool dude, despite his monotone interviews and press conferences.

Also, don't really want to jump into that argument, but IS Okafor a better offensive player now than Duncan was coming in to the NBA? I can't remember that far back if Duncan came in with a good 15-18 foot shot, or he added it later. If he always had it, he was better than Okafor, because Okafor doesnt shoot from outside from what I've seen and read. Duncan's around the free throw line area shot was money for a long time, I don't think Okafor has that at the moment. But again, that's a tough comparison, you're talking one of the best PF's to ever play, that's a lot to live up to if he's going to be compared to Duncan. I wish him well, because yeah, he did look surprised and really down when the Lakers didn't take him.