At last season’s trade deadline, D’Angelo Russell made a surprising return back to the team that selected him in the 2015 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers.
After spending his two first seasons in L.A., Russell has played for three different teams before being traded back to the Lakers. In 17 regular season games to finish out the 2022-23 season, the guard averaged 17.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists, shooting 48.4% from the field and 41.4% from 3.
Despite some major struggles in the Western Conference Finals, it was a priority for Lakers general manager to retain Russell to build continuity moving forward. Now that the former Ohio State Buckeye has gotten a full offseason and training camp, it has paid off as he’s gotten off to a hot start in the preseason
Russell had 14 points and six assists, shooting 5-for-8 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3 in Monday night’s win over the Brooklyn Nets. After the game, his backcourt mate Austin Reaves spoke to how having a full summer and preseason with the team is benefitting Russell, who he is encouraging to be more aggressive, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I think I’ve said multiple times that I think having that preseason, having these games, training camp, all that was going to benefit him [Russell] in a lot of ways. Like you said, being able to get comfortable with a group. His skill is unmatched, he can play and everybody knows that. So, just having that mindset of knowing what’s going to happen basically every possession and being able to control that. You know, I’ve said that I feel like that will benefit him a lot. He’s been super confident, as always and he’s look really good the first couple of games. You know, kindly remind him all the time that there’s probably nobody that can guard him.”
Throughout the last season with L.A., Russell was a big advocate for what this team can be if they go through a full summer together and build that chemistry with one another. It seems that Russell has been more aggressive and confident in his scoring abilities thus far in the preseason.
Head coach Darvin Ham named Russell the starting point guard early on and it seems that it helped his confidence not having to worry about losing his starting job.
With Opening Night taking place against the Denver Nuggets on Oct. 24, Russell will get a chance to exercise those demons to help spoil Ring Night for the defending champions.
Reaves picks Russell as Lakers player that will have breakout season in 2023-24
This isn’t the only time that Reaves has spoken highly about his backcourt mate. Despite the added talent to the team, Reaves believes that Russell will have a breakout season for L.A. this year.
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