One of the most important players for the Los Angeles Lakers this season was undoubtedly point guard D’Angelo Russell. Coming off a career-year shooting wise, many were interested to see what Russell could bring under new head coach JJ Redick who is looking to find new ways to bring the best out of all the players on the Lakers roster.
The two have regularly spoke about their relationship and communication being great, even as Redick made the recent decision to move Russell to a reserve role in place of the more defensive-minded Cam Reddish.
A year ago, a similar move was made with Russell moving to the bench and he was pretty open about not caring for the change. But now Russell is handling this much better and stressed the importance of not just himself, but the Lakers as a whole buying into what the coaching staff is teaching them and these systems they have implemented.
“If I could leave you with something, I think once again you just want to commit to that system that coaches are trying to implement,” Russell said after the Lakers’ victory over the Toronto Raptors. “It makes everybody’s job easier. It allows us to see how they’re guarding us early, always us to see how teams are guarding us from game to game.
“I think 82 games in the regular season, people forget what that’s for. I think our team is preparing for the postseason with these 82 games to try and get better every game. Trying to see how teams guard us, trying to see what we can do to prepare ourselves for the postseason because it’s all unfamiliar. So just committing to it, committing to what the coaches are trying to implement and it will help us be prepared later on down the line.”
That universal buy-in can only help the Lakers as this season goes on. It allows for the team to get through the rough stretches, see where they need to improve and put in the necessary work to do just that. It also requires everyone to buy into and embrace their roles on this team, something else Russell feels is extremely important.
“I think if we can find a way to be unselfishly selfish, I think that will help our guys that are supposed to be selfish and more hungry for what they’re trying to do,” Russell added. “It’s easy for us to follow those guys. Obviously Austin and AD and Bron carrying the load allows us as the supporting cast to be that much more effective because now we see teams have to guard those guys. They have to adjust, they have to game plan. You just got to be ready, guys like myself, Dalton, Jaxson, Rui, Gabe. It’s a lot of opportunity.”
Last year, Russell was the third-leading scorer on the Lakers, but had struggled at the start of this season. However, he has had back-to-back strong outings since moving to a bench role and that willingness to embrace whatever Redick and the Lakers coaches ask of him is surely contributing to his recent strong play.
Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell still on the trade block
Another big question is whether D’Angelo Russell will remain on the Lakers as this season goes on. He seems to always be in any trade rumor and that is still the case as he is an expiring contract.
A recent report noted that Russell is still on the trade block as the Lakers look to upgrade the center position with the likes of Brook Lopez and Jonas Valanciunas being known targets the team would like to acquire.
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