D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Opted In!

I was at the gm and those 2 TO toward end of 4th qtr was really avoidable, it wasn't like they even doubled him hard, just poor ball handling

 

I doubt he tries to split the double teams like that if the game was close. D'lo is starting to turn into that assist PG that I dream about. That post and turn around was sick. God help this league in 2 years. Seriously. He is going to be unstoppable.

 

The game was far from over at that point. If it wasn't for Julius' chase down block, we would have been in trouble. All we had to do was run down the clock and end the possession with a decent shot. Keep it simple. But no, like he always does, Russell had to fool around dribbling through his legs turning the ball over. It's so f'n predictable at this point. I just want someone else handling the ball in pressure situations.

 

No.

 

Definitely agree, both of them seem to be limiting their mistakes so far this year, only 9 days in though.

 

One of the reasons is they are finally playing the minutes they should ... between 32-35 a game

 

17 pts - 8 rebounds - 7 assists - 3 steals - 1 block - 2 turnovers. Made up for his turnovers with some nice shots and a steal down the stretch.

I'll take that with no problems.

 

It's probably important for young players such as DAR and Julius to feel more counted on/relied on ... They should feel it's up to them when it comes to improving this team ( same for Ingram to a little less extent)

The margin for error is bigger and the more you play the more you can improve and get in a rythm too

 

The bench ran a much simpler offense where Lou/JC and Nance/Black played the same positions, just a matter of who gets there first. It was more read and react.

As good as Lou and Nick have been, the less we rely on their hot performances, the better we are going forward.

 

I mean, if you watch Stephen Curry he's quite similar with those turnovers. A little too much flash, an ill advised pass.

The only difference is the Steph cleans it up in crunch time, and he usually gets the pass for getting to the point he's at.

 

Russell is finally playing consistent. He's healthy and it's showing. Keep it up young fella.

 

Our start wasn't down to Lou being hot, Lou didn't get insanely hot until everyone else was out and he was forced to shoulder the scoring load. Our scoring was very evenly distributed at the beginning, here is the break down of the first 20 games:

Lou: scored double digits in 18 out of the first 20 games, scored 18 pts or over 9 times out of the first 20 games.

Clarkson: scored double digits in 15 out of the first 20 games, scored 18 pts or above 10 times out of the first 20 games.

Russell: scored double digits in 10 out of the 11 games he played in our first 20, scored 18pts or over 5 times out of 11 games that he played in the first 20.

Young: scored double digits in 12 out of the 18 games he played in our first 20, scored 18 pts or over 4 times out of the 18 games he played in the first 20.

Randle: scored double digits in 12 out of the 17 games he played in our first 20, scored 18 pts or over 4 times out of the 17 games he played in the first 20 games.

Our hot start wasn't down to any single player, it was the fact that we had 5 capable scorers taking the load nightly and 5 other players in Ingram, Moz, Deng, Nance, Black - all doing what needed to be done from scoring, assisting, defending, rebounding, setting picks, moving the ball etc.

It wasn't a mirage start, we were just playing that good.

At the beginning of the season we had trouble in our first unit, because Randle started off quite slow, Deng looked like he had one foot in the grave and Moz wasn't impactful. This resulted in a lot of slow starts in the first quarter and crawling our way out of holes. This has started to turn around now with Randle and Deng playing much better and Moz being a little more impactful.

The second unit is the best bench in the league and just has great balance in general - to begin the season they were just firing. This is because Clarkson and Lou are multiple threats, they can run the PnR, attack the basket or hit from deep - not to mention both bought into giving a lot of effort on defence. Nance and Black set good picks, are scrappy on defence and get a good amount of offensive rebounds. While Ingram is just an ultimate glue guy with a great feel for the game on both sides of the ball. They should definitely be getting a large amount of game time because they are just that good as a unit. Lately they've had a tough time of it, Nance being out, Black being out, players in and out of the starting line up - once we get everyone back healthy and some continuity - I believe we'll see this second unit continue off from the first 20 games.