D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

As you said " There’s a reason Dlo has been on so many teams."

We knew Dlo is a flawed player and has his ups and downs ..

It's still way better to have him than Westbrook but it's not a perfect situation

 

I’m disappointed at his play, but not at his quote last night.

Yeah… he shouldn’t have said that. But I just see it as brutal honesty, not a sign of unprofessionalism or having checked out.

He’s not saying that he doesn’t want to play defense, he’s just saying that he knows it’s a limitation of his game.

 

I agree. And his "additional" effort at it has been noticeable most all of the games. Doing his best to stay in front of his covers, steals, blocked shots and even taking some charges.

 

Better than Jrue, Dennis, Lowry, Flopter and a few others Maybe we just don't know basketball...

https://www.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/position/pg

 

DEFENSE matters and I believe is a major part in winning Championships.
It’s not just his inability on that end, it’s that combined with his inconsistency on the other.

 

If he hit his shots, nobody would be complaining about his defense. That's pretty much his point. Everyone loves defense until the defensive players can't score. Then they want them on the bench.

 

uhh he is missing shots thus why people expect him to contribute other ways?

 

Yeah..he's missing shots right now. He can't just put more effort on D and become a better defender IMO. It's the same thing with Austin, but Austin is knocking down his shots, so his defensive shortcomings aren't considered to be a big problem.

 

Stupid us. why did we downgrade from Westbrick to D'lo?



Yeah stats are overrated. We have another stat filler (before he came here) in Christian Wood and look at the impact he's had so far.

Obviously, D'lo is better than Wood quality wise, but If D'lo continues to play like this, we are going to have to attach a pick to get rid of him. Yikes.

 

We don't even try to use Wood correctly, but if we did. we wouldn't need Rui. D'Angelo is counted on to be a key rotation player, Wood was a fall in the lap bonus player. Trading Russell with a pick attached means an upgrade in talent, there is nothing wrong with that.

 

He's not starting today. Dlo, Reaves and Gabe from the bench is weird

 

Our offense is going to suck the proverbial BIG one. LOL at that decision with “neither” of our point guards starting. Down big first quarter clank clank clank …. coming up. Most likely.

 

Wow, Hamster keeps coming up with dumb ideas.

 

yeah, i think he just tells the truth. i don't think he was lying when he admired derrick white's game, and i do think he's worked harder on defense this year than in previous years. he just isn't quick laterally or strong physically. without those, you're not going to be a big-time defender. he has long arms and pretty good instincts, so he's using that to try to make up for it, but he (and our coaches and the opponents) know he's not containing dribble penetration or defending a post up. is what it is. he said that. i'm ok with it, tbh.

BUT, as slick said, he's GOTTA make shots and run a tight ship on offense given those facts. for the past ten games or so, he hasn't been hitting, so it's (fairly) open season.

wtf? i'm cool starting gabe over dlo as an experiment, but what fresh hell is this?