D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

I don't know what's wrong with him. If he's got a legit injury or something that's one thing, but if he has a little boo boo on his knee still and that's holding him back then he's soft, his pain threshold is weak, and that's a major concern. You can't just not show up when you don't feel like it.

 

Another game and Russell was trash again. Its time to entertain the idea of shipping his *** out.

Its always same ***, different day.

1 assists and 5 TOs, 3-9 shooting...pure garbage.

As is the case regularly, got yanked for being useless altogether with his bro Randle, a pattern that is increasingly infuriating especially since they do not deserve to play.

 

The point is right now Russell and Randle being trash is in line with their salary.

But once these chumps make 15-20 million and still produce hot garbage, I would be furious.

We don't need more Dengs and Mozgovs on this team.

 

He has the talent. He just doesn't have the competitiveness that it takes to be great. He is a chump at heart.

 

I have to think there's something going on behind the scenes. I don't know what and I don't know when exactly it started, but it's something. I don't even know if it's a thing between he and Luke or not, but there's just something that's obviously making him play like a different player. There's just something that obviously has made him completely non-aggressive.

"Ice in my veins" Russell made the right reads and played with confidence. This kid is passing open shots and forcing passes that aren't there now.

My gut tells me that the coaching staff made a concerted effort to tell Russell he needs to focus less on scoring and focus more on facilitating and this is his way of pouting. He's going to force passes left and right and not taken open shots that he wants to take because the coaching staff won't give him the green light to score the ball and be the player he wants to be. I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like to me.

At this stage, I think it's still too early to say our draft picks in Russell and Randle "didn't work out". There is no one in the 2014 draft that I outright prefer to have over Julius at the #7 spot. There's a few players I'd prefer over Russell, but none that were obvious at the time (Porzingis, Turner, Booker is arguable). It may be that our tanking hasn't gotten us a franchise player, but I would still say we made the right moves in the context we had. It's still too early to say those moves have not worked, but it's a growing possibility.

Russell must stop acting like this. I'm not sure what will spur him to be more mature, but I'm beginning to grow concerned that it won't be anything the Lakers do. If there's a trade we can make to bring in a star that involves Russell, it has my full blessing at this point.

 

I agree real.

But if true, the coaching staff is pretty stupid. Let the damn guy play to his strength if he has any. You can't put a square in a peg. If Russell is more a SG than a PG then let him be a SG and go find a PG. I dunno whats going on but one thing I know is that this current Russell is pretty useless and I have to give him the blame and the coaching staff the blame because the end product isn't working.

Russell needs to balance out shooting and faciliating but if he is unable, he needs to tell everyone that he doesn't want to be that guy. The value of a SG is lower than that of a PG but that is only if the guy is as good a PG as he is as a SG. If he is a much worse PG, there is no gain there.

I dunno man, and I truly don't care. Russell is pouting obviously and he doesn't have the right to do so so he gets the heat from me. He is awful right now.

 

Regardless of anything else, this is definitely true. He needs to get his head out of his butt. I'm not sure he understands how quick life can change in the NBA. One day he's the franchise PG of the Lakers and the next he might be living in Detroit seeing if he can carve out minutes against Ish Smith and Reggie Jackson.