D’Angelo Russell is on fire at the moment. The 23-year-old has shown serious improvement on the court. During the 2017-18 NBA season, D’Angelo showcased several impressive performances hinting that he might be in for a huge 2018-19 season. I guess it’s safe to say he showed up because this year he has reached career highs in assists, points, three-point percentage, and field-goal percentage. Russell is a major reason why The Brooklyn Nets are performing well and back in the playoff hunt. Thanks to Russell’s newfound good form, he got his first call up to participate in the NBA All-Star Game last month.
The Rise of D’Angelo Russell
During the 2015 NBA draft, Russell was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers as the second overall pick. He was also named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in the same year. The Lakers had a lot of expectations for the point guard, but he struggled, and his performance lagged. Although he did show some sparks of brilliance, the Lakers traded Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Nets in exchange for Brook Lopez. The move to trade Russell was seemingly due to the lack of trust in the locker room after the whole Iggy Azalea & Nick Young debacle. Trading Russell was one of the first things Magic Johnson did after he became president of the Lakers basketball team.
“What I needed was a leader. I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also somebody that players want to play with,” Johnson said after trading Russell.
However, Russell is a completely different player eighteen months later. He is one of the best point guards currently in the game, and he has earned a place with the Brooklyn Nets. Last night the Nets staged their biggest comeback in franchise history thanks to D’Angelos 27 points IN THE 4TH QUARTER. Russell finished with 44pts. Check out the highlights here.
