The Los Angeles Lakers finally parted ways with D’Angelo Russell by trading him to the Brooklyn Nets as part of the package for Dorian Finney-Smith. Russell struggled in this 2024-25 season for the Lakers but head coach JJ Redick admitted in his press conference before Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers that there are aspects of his game that they’ll miss.
“Loved coaching DLo,” Redick said. “I told you guys this before, I spent more time with that guy and on the phone this summer, on the golf course. I told him many times that I want a great outcome for him and I’m hoping he has a great rest of the year.
“We’re gonna miss his playmaking,” Redick added, “We’re gonna miss his ball-handling. We’re gonna miss his shooting. He’s had several games, including recently the second game in Sac (Sacramento), the Portland game here, where we don’t win those games without him.”
Russell did impress in those games that Redick mentioned. The 28-year-old had 20 points (7-13 FG), four rebounds, and five assists in the 103-99 win over the Sacramento Kings on Dec. 21.
Russell was even better against the Portland Trail Blazers on Dec. 8, with 28 points (9-17 FG), five rebounds, 14 assists, and a steal to lead the Lakers to a 107-98 win. They certainly wouldn’t have won these two games without him.
The problem with Russell, though, is inconsistency. Had he played anywhere near as well as he did in those games for the whole season, he wouldn’t be a member of the Nets today.
Russell averaged 12.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game for the Lakers this season. The one-time All-Star was also quite inefficient, as he shot 41.5% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc.
Despite Russell’s struggles, he was still one of the better playmakers and ball-handlers on the Lakers. They’re certainly going to miss that, especially as they didn’t really get a replacement for him in this trade.
The Lakers sent Russell, Maxwell Lewis, and three second-round picks to the Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. Finney-Smith is the kind of elite 3-and-D wing that the team had been crying out for but he is not a playmaker or ball-handler. Meanwhile, Milton can be entrusted with ball-handling responsibilities occasionally, but certainly not on a consistent basis.
With that in mind, Redick was asked who would pick up the playmaking and scoring following Russell’s departure.
“I think with the way we substitute and the way we’ve kind of evolved with some of the non-starting lineups and how those things go, AR (Austin Reaves) and LeBron (James) will be out there sometimes together, sometimes on their own,” Redick stated. “So they’re gonna have as much, if not more, responsibility in terms of playmaking. AD (Anthony Davis) as well.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to run more pick-and-rolls for Gabe (Vincent) or run more plays for Dalton (Knecht),” Redick continued. “It’s more about the responsibility those guys have now with getting us organized, getting us into our offense, particularly getting early offense.
“The trend that we’re seeing with our team in general is we had a big shift away from movement and passing and all that stuff and our offense struggled,” Redick added. “Last few games or so, we’ve gotten back to that and that’s very much a group responsibility than it’s just one person shooting the basketball.”
While Redick believes the Lakers will find solutions internally, they should try to bring in someone either via trade or from the buyout market after the deadline. Not having a reliable playmaker in that second unit would be a mistake and could haunt them at the business end of the season.
As for the game against the Cavaliers that Redick was speaking ahead of, the Lakers lost 122-110 to fall to 18-14 on the season. They’ll now look for a return to winning ways when they take on the Trail Blazers at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday at 10:30 PM ET.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We really appreciate your support.
