Lakers coach Byron Scott thought D’Angelo Russell would be further along by this point of the season.
The second overall pick, who has been frequently hounded by his coach, has been relegated to the bench recently, and Scott admitted that it’s not quite what he envisioned for his rookie guard.
“I probably thought he’d be a little further,” Scott said Saturday, via Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “But … 19 years old. I always take that into consideration. Every time I try to chastise him about something or get mad at him about something, I always go right back to, ‘You know what? Coach, he’s 19. He’s still a kid, he’s still learning, he’s still trying to figure out what this league is all about.'”
Do Scott and Russell talk about a potential return to the starting five?
“No. He’s not old enough for me to have a meeting with him to discuss ‘What does he think?'” Scott said.
“He’s such a kid. I told him the other day, ‘You’re 19 but sometimes I think you’re 14.’ And then sometimes I say, ‘You’re 19 but sometimes, like today, you’re 22, 23.’ We have a real playful relationship because he’s such a playful kid. At practice he has fun until we say, ‘All right, let’s get serious,’ because it’s practice. Shoot-around is the same thing. But you can’t help but just smile and like the kid.”
Scott, of course, has benched Russell in blowouts and never really explained why until recently, when Scott criticized him for trying to take over a game. Scott sounds like he likes him enough to make the alleged trade talks surrounding Russell seem far-fetched, which is almost a change of pace.
