Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell is a talented scorer, shooter, and passer, but has been targeted on the defensive end of the court over the years, a fact that he’s aware of and is making an effort to remedy, as Jovan Buha and Jay King of The Athletic write.
“Last year they found a way to get me off the floor by not playing defense, I guess,” Russell said. “So, try to be a reason to eliminate that. Not give them a reason to not have me on the floor. Try to be as dangerous as I can on offense and try not to be a liability on defense. So, that’s what I’m working on. I’m trying to do it now before the season so I continue to practice those good habits.”
Interestingly, Russell named Derrick White as a role model, praising the Celtics guard for making “all the winning plays,” even if he doesn’t necessarily get credit for them. According to Russell, that’s the type of player he aspires to be.
“I woke up to it and I was shocked, really,” White said when asked by The Athletic about Russell’s endorsement. “Obviously D-Lo’s an All-Star, has done a lot of great things in this league, a highly talented player. So it’s cool to get recognized like that, especially by a guy who’s done so much in the league like he has.”
Here are a few more notes from around the Pacific:
- Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who is battling left heel soreness, will be reevaluated on Friday, head coach Darvin Ham told reporters earlier this week (Twitter link via Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group). Vanderbilt hasn’t played since the team’s preseason opener on October 7.
- The Kings still haven’t made a decision on whether to start Kevin Huerter or Chris Duarte on the wing in their regular season opener, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. However, a left knee injury for Duarte may give Huerter a leg up — Duarte has been diagnosed with a bone bruise and will miss the remainder of the preseason, as Anderson writes.
- The non-guaranteed contract that swingman Javonte Green signed with the Warriors includes Exhibit 9 language, but not an Exhibit 10 clause, Hoops Rumors has learned. Green is one of three veterans on the roster – along with Rudy Gay and Rodney McGruder – whose camp contract isn’t an Exhibit 10 deal. That means those vets may not be candidates to join the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League if they don’t make Golden State’s regular season roster.
Huerter had a solid yr last yr. Why would they even consider starting Duarte. Don’t believe it.
Better defense, probably. A healthy Duarte is a far superior perimeter defender to Huerter, who is bad at defense in general. Having him come off the bench as a sixth man helps limit the damage he does on that end without sacrificing much scoring.
I don’t necessarily agree with the move, but that’s the likely rationale.
Fair point, but sac depended sm on huerters shooting in the starting lineup last year, interesting to see them weigh shooting vs defense
I agree. But that dependence also meant that when he was cold, his flaws got exposed in full color. It really showed in the playoffs against Golden State.
Sacramento, if they want to improve, has to pick up their defense so that they’re at least out of the bottom ten teams in the league. 17th or 18th, minimum. They can’t really improve otherwise.
Also, it’s not like Duarte is a bad shooter himself. 37% on nearly 5 attempts per game in his rookie year, when he was actually healthy. That’s not Huerter’s 40% on nearly 7, but it’s at least reasonable.
I’d rather keep Huerter as the starter and bring in Duarte as a matchup guy, but it’s at least not a crazy decision.
You play team D. That’s how you help a teammate. With good team play. Huerter not only a better scorer. He’s a better shooter and is a young vet. Duarte is just finding out about the L. He makes a better backup. And I don’t think his D is that bad.
link to craftednba.com
I mean, the stats from crafted post him as 28th percentile in their overall defensive rating, which is awful, lol. And he’s only had one season where he was better than that.
Granted, Duarte ranks the same, but that’s only for his injury-plagued sophomore season. He was way better than Huerter on defense as a rookie.
And again, I don’t agree with starting Duarte over Huerter. I’m just speculating on why the Kings might want to.
Completely right
DLo was a net negative that’s why he was off the court, inefficient on offense, no defense. Good thing he acknowledges it, if he puts in the work on both ends, contract could be a real value for the Lakers.
I don’t know if “inefficient” is really the right word. He had an awful series against the Nuggets and was only passable against the Warriors (didn’t shoot well from 3 but hit 54% of his 2pt shots), but the Grizzlies couldn’t do much to slow him down and he had a 61% TS% with the Lakers in the regular season (and 60% with the T-Wolves). He’s a damn good shooter, particularly off-ball. Playing alongside guys like LeBron and Reaves, who are superior ball-handlers, allows him to use that skill more without becoming just an undersized 2-guard. He wasn’t just a net positive during the regular season for the Lakers, he was excellent. His Net +/- Per 100 was +14.1, +15.4 on-off. That’s really high.
The defense though. That was bad. And it’s what the Lakers have to work around or fix for the season. He can’t be a point-of-attack defender in any way, which while that’s less valuable for the Lakers than most teams because of how their team defense is structured, it’s still a big liability to have one of your starting 5 be that bad. He has to at least be only a slight negative on that end, which is reasonable. Theoretically.
So far preseason his defense looked better but the energy level will go down when players get tired.
I think a year under Hams scheme will really help-
Lakers run a really funnel heavy defense (makes sense with AD)
DLos footwork/ (lack of) athleticism is never going to have him stay completely in front of elite offensive guards that he will see in the playoffs but hes gotta get the feel on where the help is coming from and which way to guide his guy
I think this is AD’s greatest strength (off-ball defender) on a basketball court, once DLO can harness that it should make his job easier on the defensive side
He’s been like this his whole career…
Below average efficiency with terrible defensive habits…
He doesn’t even have the Trae Young excuse of being tiny… He has the length to compete defensively just not the will to do it…
His type of defence is point and tell another team mate what he saw…
What year is Dlo in now and he’s just learned this?
And he’s obviously just trying to not get played off the floor… instead of being a plus defender… Which he’s always had the length to be…