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Lakers News: Latest on D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr. and More
- Updated: October 11, 2016
The Los Angeles Lakers, and their collection of intriguing young talent, remain one of the most fascinating organizations to monitor heading into the 2016-17 season.
Below, we’ll break down some of the latest news surrounding the team.
D’Angelo Russell
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Lakers head coach Luke Walton is still working with D’Angelo Russell to find the right balance between being a facilitator and a scoring threat in the offense, as he told Jovan Buha of ESPN.com after a 101-97 preseason loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday:
He struggled a little bit early because he really is trying to do the right thing, do what we’re asking him. But at this level, there’s a fine line of doing what the coaches want and playing off feel. The guy has got a phenomenal feel for the game. So a lot of picks he was coming off, he was trying to play-make even though he was open for the shot. So what we’re trying to tell him is, any time you’re open, shoot it. We want you to play-make, we want you to get everyone involved from the point guard position. But when you’re coming off screens and you’re open, the best way to make that defense pay is to shoot. He’s one of the best shooters we have.
[…]
It wasn’t being more aggressive. It was just getting better at recognizing what the defense is giving you. If the defense isn’t giving you the shot, then we don’t want you shooting the ball. But the way Denver was playing, a lot of their bigs were dropping way back and D’Angelo is one of our best scorers. So if that’s the case, if he shoots 20 times at the end of the night, we’re fine with that because we think those are good shots.
Finding that balance will be key for both Russell and the Lakers this year. The 2015 No. 2 overall pick struggled in his rookie season, finishing with 13.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game on 41 percent shooting. His numbers were hardly shabby, but he also didn’t have the impact the Lakers were necessarily expecting when selecting him over Jahlil Okafor and Kristaps Porzingis.
And Russell also made waves off the court for secretly recording Nick Young, who admitted to cheating on his former fiancee Iggy Azalea, which caused trust issues within the locker room (though Young has said he’s over the incident).
With that behind him, Russell enters the 2016-17 season needing to be one of the leaders on a young Lakers team and one of the …
