D’Angelo Russell and the Brooklyn Nets
A Unique Building Block for a Unique Rebuild
Never underestimate the power of a rebuild. It can take mediocre, despondent franchises and turn them in perennial contenders over a short period of time. Most teams detest this approach, fearing loss of revenue and fan engagement. Sometimes, teams simply avoid this strategy and continue their boring miserable existence on the treadmill.
Obviously, the goal for any NBA team is to win a championship. Given the current format of the NBA, with its dependence on the NBA Draft and free agency, some teams are left with a disadvantage. The worst teams (with the recent exception of the Boston Celtics) often select the best prospects in the Draft. In today’s league, considering how easy it is for general managers to manipulate their salary cap accumulation, the best teams can attract the best players. Super teams have run amok as a result.
Even with that in mind, the Brooklyn Nets gambled a huge chunk of their future away in an infamous trade with the Boston Celtics. In that trade, the Nets gave up a king’s ransom of first round picks, among other things, in exchange for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
At first, many touted this trade as the start of a dynasty in Brooklyn. Given the addition of two All-Stars, coupled with quality players in Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson, and Deron Williams, the phrase “super team” could not have been said faster.
Unfortunately, this blew up in Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s face, as the Nets fell flat due to age and injury, leaving the team entirely depleted of assets. The team has not quite recovered from this disastrous trade. With all of that in mind, you’d think a rebuild was in order, right? Well, yes and no. While a rebuild seems like the easiest (and most obvious) answer, the Nets can’t rebuild in the conventional sense of the word. Because of their lack of first-round draft picks, they haven’t been able to actually draft highly touted prospects.
With that in mind, the Nets did something fairly unconventional. They traded Brook Lopez and the 27th pick in the NBA Draft (ultimately Kyle Kuzma) for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov. This trade signaled not only change in Los Angeles, but also change in Brooklyn.
The Nets finally have a viable foundation block to build on going forward. Trading for D’Angelo signals a positive change in direction. One would believe that D’Lo was sold for cheap. You could make the argument that he was a pot-sweetener for a Mozgov salary dump. In all fairness, this seems pretty evident. However, that doesn’t mean Russell can’t help the Nets.
Let’s break it down, shall we?
Specifically, let’s look at D’Angelo Russell as an offensive piece. One of the key aspects of D’Lo’s game is his three-point shooting. Last seasons, Russell shot 35.2 percent from three-point range. Now, that may not come off as an attractive stat, but he shot a ton of threes last year. He took almost eight threes a game. For a point guard, that’s a ton of threes. For comparison’s sake, let’s look at Nets’ point guard Jeremy Lin, who shot 37.2 percent from three on about four attempts per game.
Russell’s volume of shooting is nearly double to that of Lin’s. The Lakers were down in the majority of their games last year, so it makes sense why Russell would take more shots. While the Nets were a worse team than the Lakers, Lin is more of a traditional point guard than D’Angelo Russell. So, at the very least, we should cut D’Lo some slack.
He’s not the most athletic player, either. Some might even say he’s lazy. For a guy who’s 6'5", 195 pounds, D’Angelo Russell doesn’t necessarily get up there with the best of them. Defense does not come easy for Russell. He netted a very weak -1.6 defensive box plus/minus last season. Clearly, he needs to work on his defensive game. But, it’s not something he can’t work on. Remember, he’s 21 years old, and defense is all about effort. Guys like Patrick Beverly and Avery Bradley have made names for themselves because they pester the opposition.
So, D’Angelo Russell still has time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will he. He could very will fit in a Lou Williams-esque role in the NBA. While he can very well become the quality starting point guard that many touted him as being, he may be better suited off the ball. As a scorer, he has shown that he can hang in the NBA. It’s really on defense where he struggles a bit. If he can put in the work, given the new scenery, the Brooklyn Nets could very well win this trade on a player acquisition front. At the end of the day, D’Angelo Russell’s new situation may very well keep his career afloat.
Can he do it? I think he can.
