The Los Angeles Lakers lost in five games to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs and Nick Young says they should not have relied on D’Angelo Russell. Young recently made an appearance on Vlad TV, where he continued his beef with his former teammate by taking some shots at him.
“I was making fun of (Darvin) Ham, but the Lakers just didn’t have the staff, the team,” Young said. “They depended on DLo,= and that’s just, you’re asking to lose.”
“That Game 3 was tough for him,” Young stated. “And I know I like to pick fun at him but you just seen the writing on the wall. I feel like that was a big game and he could have changed the mindsets of what people think about him during that game and he let the moment be bigger than him, let it get to him. I don’t even think he scored a point that game.”
“What do you expect? They put their faith in the snitch and the snitch let you down, man,” Young said when told that Mase called Russell a generational snitch. “They tried to come back and bring the snitch back like it was going to work this time.”
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Those were some brutal shots fired by Young at Russell. The snitch part is, of course, referring to that infamous incident that took place in 2016. Back then, Young and Russell were teammates on the Lakers and the latter decided to secretly record the former admitting that he cheated on his then-fiancee Iggy Azalea.
The video somehow got leaked online and Azalea promptly broke up with Young. Russell claimed he had no idea how the video got leaked, but that didn’t make the situation any better. He was labeled a snitch and will have that tag for the rest of his life.
Ever since that incident occurred, Young has been beefing with Russell and the two of them have taken plenty of shots at each other. It doesn’t look like they’ll be mending fences anytime soon either.
As for Russell’s play on the court in that first-round series, the 28-year-old did indeed score zero points in Game 3. To make matters worse, Russell was also seen on his phone during a team huddle in that loss to the Nuggets.
The one-time All-Star finished the series with averages of 14.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game. Russell also shot just 38.4% from the field and 31.8% from beyond the arc. The Lakers gave him another chance following that disappointing series against the Nuggets last year, but he showed he just cannot be relied upon in the big moments in the postseason.
D’Angelo Russell Is Expected To Hit Free Agency
Russell has a big decision to make this summer, as he has a player option worth $18.6 million for 2024-25. LA would ideally prefer that he opts in, as it could then potentially trade him, but Russell is expected to decline his player option with the Lakers and hit free agency.
While he struggled in the playoffs, Russell did average 18.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in the regular season while shooting 41.5% from beyond the arc. Teams like the Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs are reportedly interested in him and I would expect Russell to get a good deal if he does indeed hit the market.
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