SEEING D’Angelo Russell get traded again might have been expected, but his destination certainly came as a shock.
For the second time in his career, Russell got traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Brooklyn Nets last Sunday (Monday, Philippine time) alongside Maxwell Lewis and three second-round draft picks for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.
Russell put up averages of 12.4 points and 4.7 assists before this trade, as he was relegated to a bench role 10 games into the season under Lakers coach JJ Redick.
The Lakers, on the other hand, get their long-coveted three-and-d guy in Finney-Smith while beefing up their bench with an offensive spark plug in Milton.
Here, let’s take a look at some of the takeaways from this trade.
Lakers get better for real
While almost every Laker fan will claim that they got better with every deal, this is one of those moves that will certainly make this team better.
This season, the Lakers are on the bottom half of three-point rankings, ranking 18th in percentage at 35.3, while plummeting even further to 27th in threes made a game at 11.8. Defensively, they ranked 21st in the league, giving up 114.9 points per 100 possessions.
Adding Finney-Smith might not be the end-all solution to these problems but it’s certainly a huge step in the right direction.
“DFS” is currently hitting 43.5 percent from beyond the arc on 5.4 attempts, draining 2.4 threes a game. In comparison. “D-Lo” is on his worst shooting year – dropping to 33.3 percent by hitting just 1.9 threes in 5.8 attempts per game.
On the defensive end, Finney-Smith is the perfect defensive complement to Anthony Davis with Jarred Vandervilt often on the sides. The 31-year-old can cover different positions, from quicker guards, to even bigs in the interior.
AR gets the keys, Max Christie is free
When Russell went to the bench early last November, it was Austin Reaves who emerged as this team’s lead guard, and the fourth-year guard looked highly comfortable in that role.
Reaves’ emergence as the primary ball handler was probably the final nail in the coffin for D-Lo’s second LA stint, and his numbers this December shows that he’s only getting better on that end.
Since returning from a five-game absence to start the month, Reaves has enabled the Lakers to finish strong – putting up averages of 20.3 points, 7.4 assists, 5.9 rebounds and a steal. This includes a triple-double and a 16-assist game. They went 5-2 in that stretch.
With ‘D-Lo’ gone, this also means more burn time for Max Christie at the guard position and it seems like the third-year wing is slowly embracing that role.
This December, Christie has seen more minutes and he’s responded with some much needed numbers off the bench, putting up 10.4 points on nearly 41 percent shooting from downtown to go along 1.2 steals in 28 minutes of action.
He got even more minutes over their last three games, and if that was an audition, Christie passed that with flying colors as he put up averages of 16.3 points while making eight of his 17 threes in that stretch, good for a healthy 47 percent.
More moves on the way?
The Lakers got more flexibility as the league draws closer to the trade deadline this February by shipping Russell.
But would this signal another move, probably get another star to the Lakers? Yes and no.
While they got better without shipping out any of their first round picks, losing Russel’s expiring contract all but shot down that move for rebuilding squads looking to start fresh next year, so maybe expecting a blockbuster trade for the Lakeshow might be too much.
Still with more flexibility, this allows the Lakers to get better in certain positions through trades – be it pairing a solid center with Davis, or finding an upgrade for Gabe Vincent who’s really struggled for the purple and gold this season.
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