Los Angeles Lakers: D’Angelo Russell’s Progress May Be Doomed

Yes, it’s just one game into the season and a number of things went on Wednesday that stood out in the 14 games of action, but nothing stood out more than the Los Angeles Lakers‘ loss at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Now, I don’t normally have juicy hot takes, nor do I think this is a particularly that hot of a take, but what the Lakers showed last night is an unwillingness, or inability, to adapt to the current regime and the rebuilding process with Kobe Bryant still playing as if it is 2008.

Bryant is one of the all-time greats. That’s not up for debate. In his prime, he was unstoppable, dominating the game like few others have in NBA history. His numbers speak for themselves, his accolades stand out among the greats.

But if there’s one thing he’s shown that he’s incapable of doing is stepping aside and letting the next wave of Lakers take over and learn on the fly.

Down by one with just a few seconds remaining, on the bench sat second overall selection D’Angelo Russell, who earned a total of zero minutes in the fourth quarter while the Wolves made their comeback, outscoring the Lakers 24-16 in the final frame. Even on a minutes restriction, Bryant was able to chuck up 24 shots, including 13 threes, in 29 minutes of action.

Russell didn’t play great defense and that’s the one aspect of his game that he’ll need to improve upon the most, but sitting him on the bench for an entire quarter, one that decided the game, and failing to give him playing experience is only going to draw out the rebuilding process longer than Lakers fans would like.

Laker fans are a passionate group. They’re a group that believes each and every year that all of the big name free agents are headed their way regardless of what the rest of their team looks like. Eventually they’ll realize that the road to another title is through the youth movement rather than free agents, though, and that’s going to take a while.

Rebuilding can be done in a number of ways. There’s the Philadelphia 76ers’ way (don’t do that way), there’s the Orlando Magic’s way (building a core of young talent to blossom together; do that) and then we saw how the Wolves and Lakers both are doing it.

Here’s the quickest snapshot of how both teams decided to start their seasons:

It’s not as if Karl-Anthony Towns, the guy picked one spot ahead of Russell, had a fantastic game. He did have a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double, but he showed his flaws throughout the game. Towns still needs to adjust his playing style by boxing out on rebounds instead of relying on his size to give him the advantage and he picked up a couple of unnecessary fouls by over-pursuing the play and playing too physical instead of staying strong on the block.

But Minnesota put him out on the floor when it mattered the most. And he came through in his nine minutes of action in the fourth. Had he failed and the Wolves lost the game, oh well, you live, you learn and you move on.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, called upon Kobe and his consistently questionable shot selections to stay on the floor. Kobe has earned the respect to get that call, but it shouldn’t be done instead of playing the young guys whom the team is trying to build around.

Kobe’s going to get his shots because he’s going to take them. There’s no stopping him at this point. It’s ingrained in his blood to shoot. The same can be said for Nick Young, Lou Williams and Jordan Clarkson, but all of them combined for just 10 more shots than Bryant. Those three could be part of the future for LA while Bryant is on his last leg.

Maybe this is just one game, because it is, but if this game and how it ended is any indication of where the season is going to go, Russell may not have been the right call for the second pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Bryant had a net rating of -17.1 last night and a usage percentage of 34.4. Russell was a -22.1 in net rating and 15.1 in usage percentage. Both guys need to improve if the Lakers want to go anywhere this season, but it’s Russell that needs the experience so he can improve those numbers. Bryant’s had that experience and it seems rather unlikely that he’s going to give up playing time in favor of the younger potential star, so it’s on Byron Scott to pull the trigger and make the move.

Except that probably won’t happen. For now, Russell will have to deal with Bryant taking valuable playing time away from him and, hopefully, get that experience next year once (if) Bryant is gone next season.

Yes, it’s just one game, but we could be in for a long season of Russell being lost in the shuffle of questionable moves by the Lakers.

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