Los Angeles Lakers: D’Angelo Russell Summer League Progress Report

Throughout the annals of NBA history, big has always been better.

For years, talented perimeter players were viewed as a dime a dozen; alternatively, a 7-footer who can walk and chew gum at the same time was cherished as a diamond in the rough.

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The said ideology is the very reason why Sam Bowie was taken ahead of Michael Jordan; and similarly, why Greg Oden was selected with the No. 1 overall pick before Kevin Durant.

Housing a franchise big means stabilizing the foundation of your franchise — the luxury of having a bonafide anchor on defense and an efficient source for scoring on offense.

However, over the past handful of seasons, there has been a gradual paradigm shift within the NBA. More so than ever, the importance of perimeter versatility, three-point shooting and pick-and-roll play is placed at the forefront of championship success.

Think about it: just in this decade, save for the 2010 Los Angeles Lakers, the last five NBA champions were all loosely defined as “jump-shooting” teams — in that they relied on floor spacing and positional interchangeability more heavily than interior scoring and dominating the trenches.

Slowly but surely, teams are valuing length and athleticism over sheer size.  Wingspans matter for wing players; and along the same vein, a big’s standing reach is treasured more highly than their anecdotal height.

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Sure enough, with the monumental success the Golden State Warriors enjoyed this past season, the Lakers brass decided to stray away from their historical identity and chose small over big.

More specifically, with the No. 2 overall pick of the 2015 NBA draft, L.A. selected D’Angelo Russell — a slithery 6’5″ combo guard capable of picking teams apart on all three levels on the offensive end of the floor — over Jahlil Okafor — the most polished back-to-the-basket center to enter the draft in over a decade.

The pick was predictably met with its fair share of criticism, but the Lakers’ unconventional choice was also viewed as a prudent selection by the bulk of the contemporary community in basketball.

The optimistic sentiments surrounding Russell, particularly from the Laker nation, would change drastically over the 2015 Las Vegas Summer League, however. Of course, it didn’t help Russell’s cause that Lakers fans went into each game as if it were the 2001 NBA Finals.

Explicitly, after several disappointing performances, the premature overreactions Summer League play inherently curates generated an avalanche of critique on the baby-faced 19-year-old’s play — from his high volume of turnovers to his lack of elite athleticism.

Russell ended his summer stint on a high-note, though, this past Friday; saving his best for last, as he poured in 21 points on 10-0f-20 shooting from the field in a loss to the Utah Jazz.

Overall, in the five SL games he appeared in, D-Lo averaged 11.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists a contest on 37.7 percent shooting from the field and just 11.8 percent from the beyond the arc, per NBA.com. D’Angelo also averaged an alarming 5.2 turnovers per game.

His numbers may not have been pretty, but Russell did showcase a plethora of translatable skills — in addition to a slew of correctable flaws — over the aforementioned week.

The Good

D’Angelo may not be a dynamite athlete, but the good thing is, he knows he’s not Russell Westbrook (despite sharing a distinct singular name).

Conversely, the Lakers’ Russell plays with exceptional pace; the walking definition of legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden’s advisory description of being quick, but not in a hurry.

He is particularly effective when operating in space while serving as the ballhandler in a spread pick-and-roll. The wiry lefty has the handle and the midrange pull-up game to (a) keep the defense honest, and (b) survey the entire floor patiently as he dribbles off of a set screen.

At this point, Russell seems to be much more of a scorer off of PNRs (pick-and-rolls) as opposed to a playmaking distributor.

His reputation as a shooter forces his man to frantically fight over every screen. Consequently, he engenders a solid look by either attacking the dropped big (the screener’s man) with a shake-and-bake stop-on-a-dime pull-up, or, if his man is trailing closely, snake the screen, step-back to create space, before unleashing a long two.

Down the line, you would ideally want D-Lo to convert some his step-back long twos into step-back threes — ala James Harden.

As of now, though, when initiating in an optimal environment — with spacing and the aid of a screen — Russell will be able to get his from day one.

Another strength of his is unquestionably his court vision. While the comparisons to Ricky Rubio are a bit farfetched, he does have a special brand of clairvoyance when passing in space. If you’re a wing and are willing to cut, chances are D’Angelo will find you. If you’re a big and you run hard down the middle of lane with Russell bringing the ball up, you better have your hands ready.

He is not, however, the passer that Emmanuel Mudiay — the other highly-touted lead guard of this incoming draft class (see his Summer League progress report here) — is out of the PNR.

While D-Lo can whip the occasional one-handed hook pass to his weakside spot-up shooter, or pitch it back to his flaring big when the defense blitzes the screen, he lacks the speed and explosiveness of a Mudiay to shift the entire D to one side of the floor, jump in the air and freeze the opposition, before whipping a pinpoint cross-court pass to corner shooter. He is also not as adept as Manny in hitting the roll man.

But if surrounded by a hoard of freak athletes who runs the floor and cuts with conviction, Russell has the natural wherewithal to pick apart the opposing D.

The Bad

The popular topic throughout the first several days of Summer League was unequivocally Russell’s struggles to break his man down and his “lack” of athleticism.

The merits of the above assertions are somewhat justified, however. Russell is not the type of player, at his point in his young career, that you give the ball to at the top of the key and ask him to get all the way to the basket. He lacks the first step and/or shiftiness required to do so.

For such reasons, he’s basically a non-threat when operating out of side PNRs. More explicitly, he simply doesn’t have the fast twitch explosiveness to beat his man along the sideline when the D ices, or in other words, forces him away from the screen. Due to his lack of nuclear athleticism, he is also not the most efficient of finishers around the rim.

Can his deficiencies in the natural gifts department be remedied? The short answer is yes.

When assessing the top isolation players in the league this past season, two of the league’s top 12 isolation artists, sorted by PPP (points per possession) — namely, James Harden and Stephen Curry — were far from the fleetest of foot. However, the duo possesses a distinct non-replicable skill that defines them, in conjunction with a shared elite trait.

For Curry, he is the best off-the-dribble three-point gunner we have ever witnessed in the history of the association. And, likewise, for Harden, he is a ball-dominant 6’5″ combo guard who draws fouls at a Shaquille O’Neal-like rate and convert them as if he was the second coming of Reggie Miller.

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The chances that Russell develops a Curry-esque stroke, or gains 30 pounds and the penchant to manipulate refs like Harden? Slim-to-none.

D’Angelo, on the other hand, can contrarily emulate Curry’s and Harden’s shared characteristic in their elite handles.

While D-Lo is no slouch when it comes to handling the rock, to compensate for his lack of top-notch athleticism, he must refine his dribbling skills in the same way that Harden and Curry did. Keep in mind, defenders will always have to press up on Russell due to his pull-up game. If he can expand his handle to where he can chop up defenders and wiggle loose towards the hoop in one-on-one situations, Russell — in addition to the controlled pace he plays with in the spread PNR game — can evolve into a future All-Star.

The second step, after he achieves an elite handle, will be much harder to master. To catapult himself from an All-Star to superstar, he will have to spawn his own recognizable skill — either, a Dirk Nowitzki-esque midrange stroke or an out-of-this-world concoction of an upper-echelon three-point shot, ability to draw fouls, and finish at-the-rim like a poor man’s Kyrie Irving.

Physically, he’s still a baby. With some NBA-style weight training and a proper diet, D-Lo should be able to shed some his baby fat, strengthen his core, and improve his middling explosiveness.

With that being said, Russell has a long road ahead. The good news? He’s only 19.

Defensively, D’Angelo will have his troubles defending in space. If T.J. McConnell can run circles around you, it is horrifying to imagine what Damian Lillard or Chris Paul will do to D-Lo.

As for his turnovers, I’m not as worried as some regarding his ability to protect the ball.

When re-watching D-Lo’s five Summer League games, the majority of his turnovers were either unforced giveaways, where he had a foot out-of-bounds as he was getting ready to catch-and-shoot and/or losing track of the shot clock — mistakes that are easily correctible with a decreased dose of anxiety and experience — or turnovers resulting from his teammates fumbling his passes and trying to force a tight pocket pass/homerun thread-the-needle pass.

None of his TOs, meanwhile, were derived from him getting stripped while bringing up the ball or the result of horribly telegraphed deliveries.

Outlook For Next Season

If Byron Scott‘s coaching history and his unwavering obsession over the Princeton offense — in conjunction with the Lakers’ current roster construction — is of any indication, D’Angelo Russell may not be placed in an ideal environment to succeed as a rook.

Namely, the Purple and Gold currently house three trigger-happy high-usage veteran wings in Nick Young, Lou Williams, and Kobe Bryant — of whom, the latter two Scott will unquestionably favor. Additionally, Russell will also share the ballhandling duties with Jordan Clarkson, a highly-touted combo guard who the Lakers have high hopes for.

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As such, the chances LA lets Russell run a spread PNR-dominant offense are highly unlikely.

With that being said, the Lakers should tether D-Lo with Clarkson. In doing so, D’Angelo can functionally play the “2” on the defensive end — a.k.a hiding him on the opposition’s worst perimeter player. Concurrently, the setup will allow Russell to serve as the primary ballhandler and initiator, while JC — the more explosive of the two (to put it lightly) — acts as the secondary playmaker in side PNR and dribble-handoff situations.

It is also worth noting that Russell’s game will innately look a lot better when playing with NBA-caliber players who understand spacing and possess a good grasp of spatial awareness.

For now, D-Lo must — as mentioned previously — work on his handles and tone his body. The foundation of skills are there; now it’s time to put in the work.

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