Los Angeles Lakers: D’Angelo Russell Set to Restore Lakers Greatness?

When the Los Angeles Lakers are in the draft lottery, it’s usually the beginning of a prestigious era.  In 1979, the Lakers fell into the luck of a coin flip — literally — when they owned the New Orleans Jazz’ first-round pick.  The Jazz’ record of 26-56 was terrible enough to get them into a coin flip for the No. 1 overall pick.  Winning the 50-50 chance, the Lakers were incredibly fortunate to land the top selection.

It ended up being a magical pick for Hollywood, as Magic Johnson was brought on to carry the legendary tradition.

Another coin-flip fell in the Lakers’ favor in June 1982, as they owned the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first-round pick from a trade two years prior. Thus, when the Cavaliers won the coin-flip with the San Diego Clippers, the whole country was in uproar.  James Worthy was drafted to the defending-champion Lakers in 1982, with “Showtime” just continuing to build on its already-dominant starting five.

Advance 14 years later (1996) with the Lakers not even having a lottery pick when draft night rolled around.  They finished with 53 wins in 1995-96, giving them the 24th overall pick — later in the first round.  But, right before Kobe Bryant was drafted at No. 13, the Charlotte Hornets had agreed to trade the rights to their 13th pick in exchange for more established talent from the Lakers.

There’s three lottery picks — within 17 years — that dramatically altered the Lakers’ path to championship status.

Mainly due to Bryant’s superstar eminence and improvement as he aged, the Lakers never really saw another top draft pick come their way.

The essence of their history is simple:  Pretty much every time a good lottery selection comes their way (even if it’s via trade), the Lakers always hit the jackpot.  Not only are Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant two of the top 10 players to ever touch a basketball, but they also were primary reasons why Los Angeles hung its last 10 championship banners.  10 titles in 30 years is an impressive percentage for any franchise, and the foundation was built due to the three lottery picks Los Angeles received.

21 years after Kobe Bryant, we now get to evaluate how a 19-year-old kid from Louisville, Kentucky lives up to the expectations surrounding him in Hollywood.

It’s a bit tricky understanding how D’Angelo Russell fits in with the Lakers’ plan after Kobe Bryant runs his final miles on the court. Nevertheless, a new era is beginning.

Russell Brings an Exceptional Character

For what it’s worth, I believe we’re long gone from the days of young NBA draftees having sour attitudes. It’s rare in today’s generation that you have conceited young players that are hard to get along with. The phrase “He’s a really good and mature person” is probably heard more than 20 times during the first round alone.

However, there’s something extra with D’Angelo Russell.  It’s something unique and exclusive to this 2015 draft class.  Russell seems to have the best personality combo of all the first-rounders who found new homes, and perhaps it’s because he reminds a lot of people of the Lakers’ former 19-year-old stud from 1996.

In terms of their respective games and play-styles, there aren’t many parallels for Russell and Kobe Bryant. But, in regards to how they conduct themselves and just from what you could gather from their post-draft interviews, it’s clear that Los Angeles couldn’t afford to pass up on this kid. With the special qualities he’s already shown — without playing a single NBA game — it’s awfully similar to how Kobe was before he even stepped foot on the court, professionally.

From the early stages of being a Laker, Russell seems to have a similar kind of edge to his mind — the “take no prisoners” type of attitude Kobe has displayed through the years. Being from Louisville (where you rarely see NBA talent arise), Russell knows that he’s overcome the toughest of obstacles. While 14 different colleges did offer him a scholarship, he had to work harder than most just to get noticed.  

Therefore, he’s earned the right to have a little bit of the same imperiousness that Kobe illustrated as a youngster.  At the same token, it’s clear that Russell has the perfect blend of cockiness and flashes of great humbleness.

Another striking comparison between the 19-year-old Russell and 18-year-old Bryant that we saw in 1996, is the undeniable intelligence as a guard.

Flash back to the early days of Kobe, and you’ll notice something:  Even during his early struggles adjusting to the more physical, “grown men” league, he still possessed some of sharpest basketball IQ the NBA had seen in such a young player.  That was before he turned into the “usage rating king” and loved contested shots like they were Skittles.

Bryant had sharp passing skills entering the league, and always looked to make the right basketball play for his team throughout high school.  Russell, after one year at Ohio State, has even better guard skills in their respective rookie years. Russell’s shrewdness as a combo guard (who loves to play the floor general role) is something that even exceeds Kobe’s basketball IQ when he entered the league.

For that, the Lakers can feel blessed … as they’ve always been.

The Fit With Bryant and Jordan Clarkson

The only argument people had against selecting Russell with the No. 2 overall pick was the actual on-court fit it would be in the backcourt.  Some, including myself, believed that drafting Jahlil Okafor made more sense for both short-term and long-term goals.

For the short-term, the obvious intention is to at least compete in the Western Conference before Bryant walks out the door. It may not make sense — considering it’s likely going to take 48 or 49 wins just to make the playoffs out West in 2015-16 — but the idea is that you don’t want to waste the scoring and veteran talents of Kobe on a team that won’t even see the court in May or June. When he’s not injured, Bryant still has enough juice to help a team win a title in limited minutes. You don’t want to use the final years of Kobe on a team that won’t get a chance to shine in the playoffs, only to miss his scoring efforts later on down the road, when you are competing for titles.

If you’re aiming for a quicker re-birth into the playoffs, it seems more realistic that a “core four” of Bryant-Jordan Clarkson-Julius Randle-Jahlil Okafor would be more desirable than a core of Russell-Clarkson-Bryant-Randle.  There’s no big man on the roster that’s capable of being in the top 25 of the power forward or center position, so there’s a glaring hole in the short-term view.

Looking long-term (which is preferred), it actually made more sense to pick Okafor for one reason:  The amount of outstanding free agent guards in the future will greatly outweigh the amount of potent free agent big men.  Once Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Kevin Love get locked up in a deal with better “right now” contenders, the market for free agent big men will diminish over the next few years.

Therefore, it would be logical to go ahead and snag one of the most fundamental, skilled big men in the draft that has exceptional footwork. That would be Okafor (at No. 2), the one that just led a charge to a Duke national championship as a freshman.

Instead, the Lakers decided to go another route.

They selected Russell, taking a completely different trail towards a rebuild.  With the pick of a point guard, Mitch Kupchak basically wanted to bank on the Lakers’ brand in 2015 free agency.  Along with President Jim Buss, he believed they could get in a room with Aldridge, Love, or Gasol and make a strong enough pitch to sway them away from sure-fire title contenders. Or, they believed a phone call to Sacramento (offering a talented guard like Russell) could help get the handcuffs off DeMarcus Cousins in a trade.

All of those scenarios have something in common.

None of them are likely, and the percentage of any happening is far below 50 percent. Each one probably has below a 10 percent probability.

Accepting the fact that Russell is now a member of the Lakers’ roster, determining the backcourt plan is pretty tough.

In his rookie season,  Jordan Clarkson showed palpable signs of a great guard option for years to come. Clarkson got off to a slow start because of the crowded roster at the beginning of the 2014-15 season, but everything changed for the better of his career when Bryant went out of the lineup (as horrible as that may sound).

After Bryant tore his rotator cuff on Jan. 21, Clarkson stepped into the starting point guard role and had zero to lose. The Lakers were already on the verge of being mathematically eliminated from the West playoffs, and the roster was so depleted that he couldn’t really be sidelined for poor performances.

Clarkson’s competence only grew larger as the weeks went by, as his per-36 scoring numbers escalated with more opportunities.  In January (with inconsistent play), Clarkson averaged 14.8 points per-36 minutes. As he became the full-time starter, his per-36 scoring went up to 18.1 points in February.  After falling down to 17.6 in March, he finished off the season with a surprising 19.3 points per-36 minutes average.

On top of his responsibilities growing (including an impressive 30-point game vs. OKC), Clarkson also brought the efficiency along with his increased shooting.  He had a breakout February, with a true shooting percentage of 56.4%, before seeing it dip a bit in the month of March (52.3%) and then rise back up during the final month of the season (55.2%).  In April, Clarkson’s usage rating was the highest it’s been for him all season, yet he still had a very imposing true shooting percentage for a rookie.

That shouldn’t just go flying under the bridge, especially since he was thrown into the fire late in the year — when teams are locking down on defense and pushing for playoff victories.

Many people haven’t respected Clarkson’s production from his rookie season, which is quite odd after he just won an All-Rookie First Team selection. For a second, the world tried to believe Los Angeles didn’t already have an adept point guard in place:  (Click image for full-size)

As a 22-year-old rookie, Clarkson joined special company with his late-season strides.  He became the 11th rookie (at any position) to meet the criteria of having a Player Efficiency Rating higher than 16.7, a true shooting percentage of at least 52%, and an assist percentage higher than 23.6%.

That may seem like very arbitrary criteria to meet, but it’s remarkable when you consider where Clarkson was drafted. He wasn’t at No. 2 overall pick, or even a No. 30 pick. He was selected in the second round, at No. 46 for the Lakers. The team didn’t even intend on drafting him until Washington wanted to engage in trade talks.

To join the company of Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Magic Johnson, and Kyrie Irving as a rookie is something you can’t just sweep under the rug.  Despite having the 6th-highest usage rating of all 11 players above, Clarkson still finished with the lowest turnover percentage of any of them. He played with an aggression no other guard had on the Lakers’ roster, but also did it carefully and intelligently.

Adding D’Angelo Russell into the mix shouldn’t create problems, but it will raise questions. There has to be some initial thought in Clarkson’s mind that having another ball-dominant guard in the lineup could mollify the growth of his own game.

As we were able to see from January to April, Clarkson only improved as a player when his usage rating started to climb. It’s the best (and quickest) way to groom a player — give him the reigns and let him make early mistakes.

Now, after the free agency period ends, most interesting storyline the Lakers face is how they’ll be able to operate with Russell and Clarkson together in the backcourt.

Although Clarkson is efficient from the field with his rim-attack, he hasn’t yet grasped how to be a reliable 3-point shooter.  He shot just 31.4% from long-range on the season, and his 3-point attempt rate of .203 was just the 11th-highest on the whole roster. He couldn’t space the floor as effectively as Byron Scott wished, and that was proven as he played off the ball.

When placed with a primary “point guard” and asked to come off the ball, the lineups including Clarkson and Jeremy Lin together were hideous from 3-point range.  One of the Clarkson-Lin lineups was a -11.9% in net 3-point percentage, while the other was even worse, at -13.1%.  Yet, the lineups with Clarkson acting as the point guard and surrounding him with better shooters resulted in positive net 3-point percentages.

That indicates something huge:  Playing with the trio of Russell, Clarkson, and Kobe could end up being a blessing for the end of Bryant’s career. Russell is one of the top five threats from long-range in the 2015 draft class, so placing him alongside a weaker shooter in Clarkson and a struggling Kobe that desperately needs space just to operate … seems ideal.

The two options Los Angeles faced heading into draft night were both destined to bring constructive results. Kupchak couldn’t have gone wrong with either option of Okafor or Russell, as the only thing different is the course it will take to reach playoff contention.

With Russell, the path seems as if it will take a little bit longer. The Hollywood community seems content with that, however, as they believe a smaller version of Kobe Bryant was just steered in their direction.

After a 12-month period, the decision to take Russell at No. 2 can be re-evaluated.

**All statistical support credited to Basketball-Reference**