D’Angelo Russell’s return to the Los Angeles Lakers last season ended on a bad note. He just made sure that there will be more to the story.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the 27-year-old point guard agreed to a two-year, $37 million deal to remain with the Lakers after hitting unrestricted free agency.
Russell’s contract agreement came as the Lakers also made deals to keep restricted free agents Austin Reeves (four years, $56 million) and Rui Hachimura (three years, $51 million). The team also added Gabe Vincent to a three-year, $33 million deal, setting up a potential point guard tandem with the former Miami Heat starter and Russell.
The Lakers acquired Russell at the trade deadline earlier this year as the biggest piece in their comeback from a three-team trade that took Russell Westbrook off the books. That trade reunited Russell with his original team, as the Lakers selected him second overall in the 2015 NBA Draft and traded him two years later. partly because of his infamous Snapchat incident with Nick Young,
Russell later developed into an All-Star with the Brooklyn Nets and spent time with the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves before fate sent him back to Los Angeles.
In his second stint with the Lakers, Russell proved to be a better match for the team than Westbrook as the starting point guard. While Westbrook was an abysmal shooter, Russell shot 41.4% of his shots from 3-point range with the Lakers going 12-5 in the games he played. He averaged 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per game as a Laker during the regular season.
However, Story found great success in the playoffs. Russell performed fairly well in the first two rounds, but his absence in the Western Conference Finals was a major reason why the Lakers lost to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets. In fact, “disappearing” may be being generous, as his 10-for-31 shooting (15-for-15 from deep) and inability to stay in front of opponents on defense made him nearly unplayable until the end, only 15. Minutes played. Sports 4.
There were demands to send Russell to the bench midway through the series, but ESPN It was reported that the Lakers were concerned that they would “lose” him if they publicly demoted him like this. Now we can see how it worked.