D’ Angelo Russell has had little laughter in his NBA career so far. His two years with the Los Angeles Lakers are likely to be remembered by fans mainly because of a scandal – but there is much to be said for the Brooklyn Nets. On Sunday, the Nets Dennis Schröder and the Atlanta Hawks will be welcomed at the LIVESTREAM FOR FREE on SPOX at 9.30 pm.
Together with Timofey Mozgov and his silly treaty, Russell was awarded the contract on 22nd October. He was traded to the Nets on June 1, not even two years after the Lakers sent him to 2. in the first place. But Brook Lopez and the No. 27-Pick (Kyle Kuzma) went to the city of angels.
The Lakers opened the deal to get rid of the Mozgov deal – Lopez’s contract expires in the summer, so it’s money to fill in prominent free agents like LeBron James or Paul George. At the same time, however, the franchise also gave up the player who was supposed to be set up as a figurehead before the last season. This is now to be taken over by Lonzo Ball.
“We needed a leader. Someone with whom other players want to play together,”Lakers President Magic Johnson explained the decision per ball. Russell? These criteria obviously do not apply to them. The 21-year-old Guard is now allowed to seek his fortune in Brooklyn. With the laughing stock of the league, so deep in the basement that even Jame Gumb would feel uncomfortable.
You could be moping now. While the Lakers always have a certain relevance due to their radiance (and may soon be relevant again in sports!), the Nets are not even the number one team in Brooklyn – and because of the catastrophic trade with Boston, the road to sporting success is much more complicated. The serious injury to Jeremy Lin, who will miss the entire season, has even reinforced this. The (few) people who thought Brooklyn had the chance to surprise one or the other were quickly silenced by this news.
There are no expectations of this team, neither for this year nor for the following year. And the only way to become interesting at least is in trades like this for Russell – you get a young talent and swallow bad contracts from other teams like Mozgov. In the case of Allen Crabbe, the talent and the lousy contract are even united in one person.
For these players, however, this situation can also be seen as a great opportunity. Coach Kenny Atkinson’s system offers more than enough opportunities to excel, and the shadowy existence of the Nets doesn’t just have to be negative. Especially for Russell; apart from maybe Carmelo Anthony, no NBA player needed the change of scene more than DLo.
It seems almost impossible for Russell to play in the NBA for only two years. In this short time, he experienced Byron Scott, perhaps the worst coach for young players in the entire league. He experienced Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour at close quarters and learnt that circus is sometimes more important than the game itself.
Especially the situation with Bryant was certainly not easy for Russell. On the one hand he was to become his “successor”, on the other hand he was reminded at every opportunity of what he was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do. An absurd example: When Russell wrote on Twitter that Tracy McGrady might have been the “GOAT”, he didn’t only get to hear it from Lakers fans – but also from Kobe himself.
It was certainly not easy for one of the youngest NBA players. Especially since he didn’t necessarily behave like an adult – the Snapchat affair around Nick Young is probably the event from his Lakers-time, which most fans remember. Not the occasional scoring explosions Russell had in the second year, such as 40 points against the Cavs in March.
Generally speaking, the second year was certainly better, but not enough for the Lakers’ expectations. The new coach Luke Walton wanted to build the Lakers around him, but it never really worked that way. On the one hand, Russell defended without interest, on the other hand he did not find the appropriate role offensively.
Walton brought him off the bank a couple of times, also as a shooting guard, but it remained staggering performance. Russell could not give structure to a mostly confusingly acting, because the young Lakers team couldn’t structure it. The frustration of many Lakers fans was all the more popular because he was the one who was most expected.
Sometimes it went down that Russell had his moments. For every 100 possessions he scored 26.5 points and 8.2 assists last season – only LeBron James and Kyrie Irving had managed that at the age of 20 years before him. And it’s not just the numbers: Russell reads the game well and has a feeling in pick’ n’ roll that you can’t teach.
For all weaknesses and question marks regarding mentality, these are attributes that have made the deal a no-trainer for the Nets. Where else would they get a talent like that? It is undisputed that he has much to learn as a defensive and leader. But it’ll take time. He’s 21,”GM Sean Marks recently clarified.
The first results are good:”You can already see that the others like to play with him because he can fit well and make them better,”said Marks,”but he will earn their trust by doing the invisible things, by accepting batches, fighting through screens, and so on”.
The opinion that nobody wants to play with Russell, which is widely held by Magic Johnson among others, is rejected by Russell:”I believe that the others have also enjoyed playing with me last year. But I’ll make sure from now on that they do, not just think about it.”
Russell gives the impression that he has arrived in reality since the trade – and wants to repair his reputation. Maybe he’s just a little bit of a mature man, too. In any case, he usually says and does the right thing at the moment. He led the team in the preseason with points, assists and steals, and in the season opener against Indiana he scored 30 points – the Nets debut with the highest number of points since Tiny Archibald in 1976.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us,”he said after the 131:140 defeat against Indiana,” It has been seen that we can score. It’s the little things – defense, rebounds, transition that we have to work on in order to succeed.”
One could now accuse Russell of describing absolutely essential elements of the game (and its weaknesses) as “little things”, but that would be hair-splitting – he seems to want to work on himself. That’s the only thing the Nets want to see from him.
“So far I’d give him an A,”said Atkinson,”He’s doing well and trying to do everything he can to subordinate himself to the team and internalize our philosophy.”
As a collective, we want to go in the right direction in every game,”said Russell,” you don’t want to look back at the end of the season and think you’ve wasted time. This season and the next, all that matters is that we move in the right direction.”
Russell said this about his team. He could have said the same thing about himself. His mission has just begun.
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