D’Angelo Russell’s second stint with the Los Angeles Lakers has come to an end as he was traded along with Maxwell Lewis and three second-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.
Oddly enough, this marks the second time the Lakers have traded Russell to the Nets in his career. The circumstances this time around were much different though as Russell had a lot more success this go around and remained professional throughout.
Ahead of Tuesday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lakers head coach JJ Redick wished Russell well in Brooklyn.
“Loved coaching DLo. I told you guys this before, I spent more time with that guy and on the phone this summer, on the golf course. I told him many times that I want a great outcome for him and I’m hoping he has a great rest of the year. We’re gonna miss his playmaking. We’re gonna miss his ball-handling. We’re gonna miss his shooting,” Redick said.
“He’s had several games, including recently the second game in Sac, the Portland game here, where we don’t win those games without him. So with Gabe being out tonight, Shake having his first game with us, we’re gonna miss a lot from DLo.”
Redick also discussed who will have to pick up the slack with the Lakers no longer having Russell’s scoring punch and playmaking ability off the bench.
“I think with the way we substitute and the way we’ve kind of evolved with some of the non-starting lineups and how those things go, AR and LeBron will be out there sometimes together and sometimes on their own. So they’re gonna have as much, if not more, responsibility in terms of playmaking. AD as well,” Redick said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean I’m gonna run more pick-and-rolls for Gabe or run more plays for Dalton. It’s more about the responsibility that those guys have now with getting us organized and into our offense, particularly early offense. The trend that we’re seeing with our team in general is we had a big shift away from movement and passing and all that stuff and our offense struggled. The last few games or so, we’ve gotten back to that and that’s very much a group responsibility than it is just one person shooting the basketball.”
It will be interesting to see if the Lakers look to add another scoring guard or if they think guys like Gabe Vincent, Dalton Knecht and Milton can handle the scoring off the bench in Russell’s absence.
D’Angelo Russell excited for opportunity with Nets
After the Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell back to the Nets, reports indicated that he was excited about the move. Russell is in the final year of his contract so should get plenty of opportunities to show what he can do in Brooklyn the rest of the year before heading into free agency.
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