D’Angelo Russell moved from the playoff-bound Los Angeles Lakers to the lowly Brooklyn Nets earlier this season. Many players might not be happy with that, but it sounds like it was precisely what Russell wanted.
Russell made a blunt admission about his time with the Lakers in a new interview. The veteran guard said his most recent stint with the Lakers had left him “a little traumatized,” and that the move to Brooklyn had reinvigorated him.
“I would never take it for granted, coming from where I came from. Obviously, I was a little traumatized there,” Russell told Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “To be here and get the opportunity to just be me where there’s familiarity as well is just icing on the cake. I’m at the point in my career where I’m not going out and scoring 25 points every night and wowing with numbers. It’s a point where I’m trying to gravitate towards doing it the right way, and how I can contribute to winning is my priority.”
Clearly, Russell did not love how his time with the Lakers ended. He was benched early in the season and sounded quite chastened by that move. That resulted in him posting the worst numbers of his career, averaging just 12.4 points and 4.7 assists per game in 26.3 minutes per game for the team.
Less than two months after being moved to the bench, he was dealt to the Nets as part of the trade that brought Dorian Finney-Smith to Los Angeles. His numbers actually have not improved that much, but he sounds much more comfortable in his role.
At times during his career, Russell has been widely mocked for his public shows of confidence that have not been backed up by his on-court production. Going from a valuable regular with the Lakers last season to losing his starting job early in this campaign was probably a real shock to him.
Russell is set to become a free agent at the end of the current season. The Lakers probably won’t be in the market for him, but even if they were, it certainly sounds like that ship has sailed.
