Russell comes to the Nets after two okay years in Los Angeles for some bad Laker teams. He showed flashes of potential, but he is best known for off the court things like outing Nick Young and his lack of leadership skills according to Magic Johnson. The Lakers' loss is the Nets' gain and I have no doubt that Russell is going to have a good season. He finished last season with some decent numbers averaging 16 points per game and almost 5 assists. He played 29 minutes per game and missed 19 games due to injury. He had some moments during last season including dropping 40 on the Cavaliers and hitting seven 3 pointers in a game against his new team.
Is D'Angelo Russell actually going to be good or were those breakout games just a mirage? The majority of Russell's offensive possessions came out of the pick and roll. He was not great in the pick and roll turning the ball over 20% of the time and only averaging 0.76 points per possession putting him in the 41st percentile in the league according to Synergy. The Nets as a team were also not great in the pick and roll rating out as the 28th best pick and roll team, so he should fit right in. Russell is going to have to improve in this area of his game. However, Russell's future to me seems to be more of an off-ball scorer. In isolation, he put up 0.95 points per possession, good enough to put him in the 74th percentile of the league. With the return of Jeremy Lin to the Nets, it seems that their best lineups might involve Lin and Russell playing together. Russell is not much of a spot up threat and he is not a great shooter. He has shot 35% from three during his two year career, but getting the chance to play off ball with a real NBA point guard might give him some better looks.
Russell has a great opportunity with the Nets. He was traded because the Lakers felt that they had something better waiting for them in the draft. I would argue that anyone would rather have Lonzo Ball than Russell right now, but Russell is young and he has talent. Unfortunately, he went from one bad team to another. Playing for bad teams does not help your game, it hurts your game. The Nets have made some good moves this offseason to add some veteran players that could help Brooklyn win more than last year. They added DeMarre Carroll and Allen Crabbe to give them some defense and more shooting. Brooklyn is still bad, but they should be better with a healthy Jeremy Lin and D'Angelo Russell.