D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

"If I've lost anyone's trust, I'm going to work my tail off to get it back," said Russell, who had 16 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist against the Heat. "It's something you need [to be] a winning team."


Serena Winters: D’Angelo Russell on if he feels like he’s gained back trust of teammates: “I wish I never said that because I don't feel like I lost my teammates trust.

How would Russell have reacted if Young took a swing at him? “I’d get physical back,” Russell said. “It’s a point where you try to solve it the right way and I don’t know the words, but [if] there’s a sign of disrespect or violence is involved, sometimes you’ve got to let people feel you, you’ve got to let people know that, ‘If you disrespect this guy, you know you’ve got to bring it.'”

There are more examples of this type of thing being said with him than all our other young players combined.

 

biased against russell: not guilty. i consider myself a pretty strong supporter and think he can be a very good player.

biased against social media: a little guilty.

but as sirron indicated, it's really an issue with the kinds of things russell says. they're indicative of immaturity, and they're on full display all the damn time.

is it fair to expect a 19 year old to be mature? maybe not. but some are.

sirron's post above is a great example of the kind of odd reframing that prohibits personal growth. and yes, it is dwight howard-esque. dwight never grew out of these things (he's STILL doing it), but that doesn't mean russell won't. he's just not making any strides currently. at least that i can see...and i get to see a lot!

 

To be clear, I'm a big fan of D'Angelo. My avatar has his left eyebrow, and I have the domain name www.lefteyebrow.com.

Doesn't mean I'm blind to the hints of narcissism that he throws out. Hopefully it's something he just grows out of. Heck, I think it's taken LeBron until the age of 31 to start to get some media coaching so he doesn't come off as a douche all the time. But even recently his comments about Steph curry and the MVP smacked of the same old LeBron.

Like others have said, don't tell us how great you're going to be, just be great.

If LeBron was on my team, you learn to live with your players deficiencies because you support them. I supported Shaq, but I had no problem saying that he was fat or out of shape and then I thought it was inappropriate to Yell Out to Dr. Buss now are you going to pay me

 

Don't see an issue. Nitpicking at its finest.

 

Seriously? Reread sirron's first 2 sentences 3 posts above yours. He wishes in the 2nd sentence he hadn't said what he did in the first instance above. Or said it differently. Needs brain more in gear before speaking then, especially on touchy media things. And it will make his physical journey a little harder if it turns into bulletin board type material when talking about his game before he actually shows it. Walk the talk first.

 

Or of teammates...

 

Everybody forgets, stop talking...Let Shaq make his jokes but it will diminish, no one will notice after you are an all star. See Kobe.

 

I know I said this discussion is silly, but one quick aside.

This posting about his work ethic could be his attempt to get as far away as possible from the incident. He thinks that by posting about all the good things people will slowly forget about what he did wrong. Mentally for him it also probably helps. Is it logical? No. But psychologically? Yeah, of course.

 

at the beginning of the offseason we first saw pictures of Julius and Clarkson working out. people were asking what about DA? Russell then starts sharing his workout and now people are saying he should keep his mouth shut. this is about as nitpicky as it gets. is he immature? yes, but coming off the drama last season he knows people are going to be judging him at every opportunity. i don't think he's sharing his workout details to get a pat on the back, but rather to assure Lakers nation that he is putting in the work. we've seen plenty of Lakers share workout photos and videos in the last few years and we've always applauded them. i'm actually quite disappointed that we're even having this debate. we have to wait almost 5 months before his game can do the talking. cut the kid a little slack for just letting Lakers fans know that he's working on his game.

 

Bottom line is that Russell has exhibited strong signs of Adult ADHD and Impulsivity (lack of focus, being socially inappropriate, acting without much consideration to the consequences, etc) throughout the season. It's blatantly obvious and I don't think it can be written off as immaturity.

It is a legitimate concern, just like how Julius' jumpshot and right-hand limitation is a concern. I'm not hating on the kid, and I genuinely hope he can snap out of it asap, but I'm not going to dismiss it and act like it's not an issue.