It’s easy to overreact to D’Angelo Russell.
His passes are sometimes otherworldly, floating across the court before landing into the waiting hands of his teammates. When he’s clicking, his game is smooth, making his shot – and everything else offensively – look much easier than it is for the 19-year-old.
But that’s the thing; he is just 19 years old. And those highs are met by equal lows; the struggles on defense, lack of aggressiveness, and other factors that are out of his control, but affecting his play.
Add in the expectations of being the second-overall pick on one of the NBA’s name franchises and overreaction is imminent.
One night he is a ball-handling wizard destined to lead the league in assists, the next? He is somewhere between the league average and Anthony Bennett, depending on who you ask.
We are 11 games into the Los Angeles Lakers’ season, meaning D’Angelo Russell has played a mere 11 games as a professional. By the 11th shift at my first real job, I was just getting everyone’s name down, let alone performing at my optimal level. Perhaps we should let the rookie, you know, be a rookie?
Coming out of the draft, the people saw Russell’s style of play and ceiling in the mold of the top-two MVP candidates last year, Stephen Curry and James Harden. Some thought that he could potentially be a Steve Nash-type of player down the road.
These are the players who Russell’s skill set can line up with. Obviously it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison – he can’t shoot like Curry and nobody draws fouls like Harden – but as a general baseline of how these guys play, there are worse comparisons based on skills and overall athletic profile.
So how does D’Angelo Russell, through the first 11 games of his rookie campaign, compare to these three greats, who we now know are (were in Nash’s case) elite players in the NBA?
First, let’s take a look how Russell has been through his first 11 games.
It’s important to remember that he will play a good chunk of this season as a 19-year-old; the guys I’ll be taking a look at were all at least a year older than him during their first NBA seasons. The difference in physical maturity should not be understated.
In 11 games, Russell is averaging 9.5 points (39.3-percent shooting), 2.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.2 three-pointers (31-percent shooting) in 24.8 minutes per game. He also is averaging 1 steal per game, and has the fifth-highest usage rate on the team at 20.4-percent.
How does that stack up to the league’s reigning MVP, Stephen Curry? What about James Harden and Steve Nash?
Stephen Curry, 2009: 9.3 pts (48-percent shooting), 4.9 asts, 2.4 reb, 0.9 3pt (40-percent shooting). 28 minutes/game.
James Harden, 2009: 5.8 pts (33-percent shooting), 2.8 asts, 2.9 reb, 0.7 3pt (32-percent shooting). 17.2 minutes/game.
Steve Nash, 1996: 7.3 pts (49-percent shooting), 4.2 asts, 1.8 reb, 0.4 3pt (33-percent shooting). 19.8 minutes/game.
(All stats courtesy NBA.com/stats)
As you can see, Curry was averaging about the same points, albeit on a higher shooting percentage, and about two more assists in about four more minutes per game.
His stats are pretty impressive given that he had the eighth-highest usage on his team (15-percent), and he had a somewhat similar situation with chuckers like Monta Ellis and Corey Maggette around him, though both were much more efficient than today’s version of Kobe Bryant, which benefits Curry.
It’s important to note that this was Curry’s age 21 season after playing three years of college basketball.
Harden was the closest to D’Angelo Russell across the board, which is interesting considering how similar the two are in physical profile. Like Russell, Harden struggled from the field, but displayed a knack for contributing across the board when given the chance.
Harden had a 21-percent usage rate, good for fourth-highest on the Thunder during that time period. This was Harden’s age 20 season, which came after playing two years of college ball.
Nash is a bit harder to correlate due to the difference in age and the era of play. He showed signs of what he would become – a deadly shooter and fantastic distributor – but simply wasn’t getting the minutes to produce huge numbers. Nash had a usage rate of 18.2-percent, the seventh-highest on the 1996-97 Suns through 11 games.
However, Nash was already 23 during this season, after completing all four years of college basketball.
Looking at the numbers, hopefully you can talk yourself off the ledge on D’Angelo Russell, should you find yourself on it. His numbers line up favorably with James Harden through the same stretch of their NBA careers, and he isn’t all that far away from greats like Stephen Curry and Steve Nash. It’s simply proof that players need time, and overreactions lead us nowhere useful.
There are issues with the Los Angeles Lakers, and even some that concern D’Angelo Russell’s future (hello, Byron Scott), but his production early in his age-19 season should not be very high up on that list.