{"id":121237,"date":"2025-01-31T16:00:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T21:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=121237"},"modified":"2025-01-31T15:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T20:21:32","slug":"dangelo-russell-has-settled-post-lakers-drama-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/31\/dangelo-russell-has-settled-post-lakers-drama-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"D’Angelo Russell’s Comeback: Rising Above Lakers Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a> has played for numerous teams throughout his entire career. The teams include the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Brooklyn Nets. He is now in his second stint with the Nets after a rough two-plus seasons with the Lakers. His recent play shows that Russell has moved past his post-Lakers drama seasons.<\/p>\n

D’Angelo Russell’s Comeback: Rising Above Lakers Drama<\/h2>\n

The Nets reunited<\/a> with Russell after the Lakers traded three future second-round picks along with Maxwell Lewis<\/a> and Russell, for Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a> and Shake Milton<\/a> in late December. Despite the recent headlines, Russell has been playing the game he wants to. Russell faced a tough time with the Lakers due to shooting struggles, coming off the bench, coaching conflicts, and not playing freely as a point guard. It was difficult playing point guard for the Lakers because LeBron James<\/a> often took on the role of creating plays and finding open teammates, which could have been Russell\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Angelo Russell Has Settled Post-Lakers Drama Seasons<\/h3>\n

Former NBA player Jeff Teague<\/a>, who played 12 seasons in the NBA, spoke about Russell\u2019s return to the Nets and explained why he is better off not playing with LeBron James on his Club 520 Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s out of that LeBron mode or whatever. He doesn\u2019t play well with LeBron, man,\u201d Teague said. \u201cI mean, he had a decent year last year. Shot the ball well, but he\u2019s one of those guys that need the ball in his hand, be able to create, play free, and that\u2019s what he\u2019s gonna be able to do in Brooklyn. I promise you, he gonna average 20 points back in Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teague\u2019s comments are accurate. Russell needs to be in a situation where he scores, can create plays, and run the offense. He couldn\u2019t do that with the Lakers. Russell is appreciative of the opportunity to play his style of basketball again.<\/p>\n

In January, Lucas Kaplan of the Nets Daily asked Russell if he feels more comfortable with more experience under Nets\u2019 coach, Jordi Fernandez. Russell responded<\/a>,<\/p>\n

“Dude, I’ll never take being able to play free basketball like this for granted, again. This is style and a play that — obviously we got the best performance team as well. They keep guys fresh, they keep guys in shape. They keep them prepared for the minutes and the load that they’re about to play in. So for me, my body is not prepared for this. I didn’t prepare for this all season, all summer, so it’s an adjustment for me as well. My body’s adjusting as well. So like I said, just keep listening to the training staff. They’re putting me in the best position to adjust mid-season and not be vulnerable out there as well.”<\/p>\n

Russell and The Nets Rebuild<\/h3>\n

Russel is averaging 14.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game with the Nets. He has reunited with his high school teammate, Ben Simmons<\/a>. Coach Fernandez is allowing him to create\u00a0 plays while also following the team\u2019s playbook during games. Despite being highly-viewed in trade value while with LA, Russell is showing he can play for any NBA team, and he is proving it for the Nets.<\/p>\n

The Nets are in rebuilding mode<\/a>. No one is safe from being traded. The off-season will be interesting to watch. We will have to wait and see if Russell is part of the rebuild. In the meantime, he remains a fan favorite, and he is free from his time with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Michael McLoone-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D\u2019Angelo Russell has played for numerous teams throughout his entire career. The teams include the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Brooklyn Nets. He is now in his second stint with the Nets after a rough two-plus seasons with the Lakers. His recent play shows that Russell has moved past his post-Lakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5340,"featured_media":121262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,6,62],"tags":[266,307,49161,38],"class_list":["post-121237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nets","category-nba","tag-ben-simmons","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121263,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121237\/revisions\/121263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}