D’Angelo Russell entered the NBA after playing just one season of college basketball for the Ohio State Buckeyes, but he doesn’t want today’s youngsters to follow his example. On the Run Your Race podcast, Russell explained why players should stay for longer in college now.
“I was enjoying college, bro. I loved college,” Russell said. “That’s would advise all the younger dudes. Go do college because the league ain’t going nowhere.
“And at some point, you going to be wanting to revisit your school,” Russell continued. “And then all those alumni that was there gonna come back to the light and it’s gonna be like, ‘Dang, we can actually collab. We can actually do stuff. You can actually support my podcast. We can actually do this.’ And it’s laid out right there just because you got that Carolina right there, you got that Ohio State.”
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Staying longer to build relationships that would help years down the road is an interesting proposition. With today’s collegiate athletes being allowed to sign NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals, they don’t have to rush to the NBA in order to start making money either, which used to be the big motivation to leave.
Another point in favor of staying longer is that not everyone is actually good enough to play in the NBA after just one year in college. In quite a few cases, it would have actually been better for a player to stay in college to develop their game rather than just follow the one-and-done trend.
The counter-argument to all of this is, of course, the risk of injury, which is why I don’t think a blanket statement can be made here. In some cases, it’s better to leave after just one year, and in others, it’s better to stay longer. If you’re projected to be a lottery pick, leaving makes sense but if you’re not, maybe staying might be better.
Russell also revealed that he had initially planned to stay at Ohio State for a couple of seasons, but as his stock went higher he changed his mind. He averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game as a freshman, to shoot up draft boards and become a consensus top-five pick.
Russell would end up being selected with the second pick of the 2015 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He had a solid rookie season with averages of 13.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.2 steals per game, but never quite turned out to be the superstar that many expected him to be.
The Lakers Are Trying To Trade D’Angelo Russell
Russell’s first stint with the Lakers lasted two seasons and it doesn’t look like the second might even last that long. While the 28-year-old had a solid regular season, with averages of 18.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, he struggled mightily in the playoffs yet again.
Thanks, in part, to that, the Lakers have been trying to trade Russell, but they haven’t had much success. The Portland Trail Blazers reportedly don’t want Russell in a trade involving Jerami Grant and that seems to be the case whenever his name pops up in any rumored move. He might just end up remaining a Laker the way things are going and that’s not ideal for the franchise.
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