Los Angeles Lakers Media Day is just around the corner, and it will be a lot of familiar faces with guys like D’Angelo Russell, Christian Wood, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes picking up their player options this past offseason.
Before the 2024-25 NBA season gets underway though, the WNBA will wrap up their season with the playoffs beginning next week.
One team that made it is the Indiana Fever, who are a young, up-and-coming team that features Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell.
After starting off slow, the Fever have found their groove since the All-Star break and are playing like one of the best teams in the league. The playoffs are a different animal, however, and for most of their players, this will be their first taste of postseason action in the WNBA.
With that being the case, Mitchell revealed that she recently reached out to Russell to get the Lakers guard’s advice on playing in the playoffs, via Fever reporter Tony East:
“I recently talked to my close friend D’Angelo Russell. He got a glimpse of it and we go way back. Me and him go back to the point where we trained together at Ohio State. We kind of know each other so, from that perspective, it was good to get a conversation and get a glimpse of how it looked. I also got a chance to talk to [Miles] McBride, I don’t know if y’all know who that is but he played with the Knicks and if from Cincinnati, Ohio. Miles McBride, he just actually was a part of round two and made a run with the Knicks, so he knew what it was like, too. We’re from the same hometown. I like to get as much information as I can, so it will be exciting to hear about it.”
As Mitchell mentioned, her and Russell go way back as she played at Ohio State from 2014-18 while he was there from 2014-15.
But while Russell certainly has playoff experience, he has been inconsistent in big games, especially since coming back to the Lakers in 2023. He has learned from those failures though and is hoping to bounce back with the Lakers this season.
In the meantime, it is cool to see him giving advice to Mitchell and the Fever ahead of their upcoming playoff run.
Lakers’ LeBron James calls out Caitlin Clark haters
The main reason for the Fever’s turnaround has been the play of rookie sensation Caitlin Clark. She was the most hyped WNBA draft pick ever and so far has lived up to the hype, similar to LeBron James a couple decades ago.
And James is certainly rooting for Clark as he took to social media to call out her haters after a recent stellar performance.
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