Former No. 2 overall pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2015 D’Angelo Russell made an unexpected homecoming at February’s trade deadline. The 6’4″ guard out of Ohio State was having a career year with the Minnesota Timberwolves from the 3-point line shooting 40% on high volume before coming to the Lakers in a blockbuster three-team deal.
Russell would provide a dynamic scoring option for the purple and gold with his ability to impact the game with or without the ball, which is necessary when playing with the likes of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. He helped turn the Lakers’ season around, going from the 13th seed to the Western Conference Finals.
The former All-Star has had limited playoff experience and in those games has proved to have his struggles. This was the guard’s first multi-round playoff run and there were some ups and downs, although he had scoring outbursts in the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors series’. In the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers met their maker with the Denver Nuggets, being swept by the eventual champions.
Russell had his fair amount of struggles that series, eventually getting benched in Game 4. The entire Lakers team could not keep up with the offensive firepower that the Nuggets had, which resulted in a short series with Nikola Jokic leading the way for Denver. Russell made an appearance on ‘The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone’ and called Jokic is the best player in basketball right now while reflecting on that series:
“Yeah, they got the best player in basketball. They [Nuggets] got the best player in basketball on their team. No disrespect to nobody, he’s the best player in the NBA right now. Not even close. Aye, Jokic, I said this shit like two years ago, bro how do you guard him? How do you guard somebody that don’t even want the ball? I ain’t going to say he don’t want the ball, I ain’t going to say he don’t want the ball, but he don’t care. He said something crazy to put things into perspective for him. He said if I was in a JV game, I’d average a triple-double or I’d just play the right way. He said something so simple, nobody else is saying something like that. You’re in a JV game you’re trying to score 80, trying to get 100 points. No, he’s playing a JV high school game and this dude is gonna have 10-10-10-10-10. It’s just like, nobody is thinking like that, you’ve never seen it is what I’m sayin’, you’ve never seen that.”
It seems that Jokic has taken the best player in the NBA title with the postseason run him and the Nuggets had, and it is deserving. Despite the Nuggets and Lakers having their back and forth during and after the series, Russell is still giving the champions and their best player props.
With the offseason moves the Lakers made, the hope is to be able to compete with and take down the defending champions. When the schedule releases, it is safe to assume both teams with have their respective matchups circled and it’ll be fun to watch.
Russell believes ‘sky is the limit’ for this new-look Lakers roster
With Russell resigned and back in the fold with the Lakers, he’s been a guy who’s spoken highly of the roster during the home stretch of last season and it seems like his stance has not changed. With the moves the front office made, Russell believes this team has what it takes.
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