Lakers: D’Angelo Russell Finally Beginning to Actualize His Potential

Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell is finally beginning to find his groove, just as he said he would prior to the season

Fans have been quick to criticize D’Angelo Russell for being a bust. Almost as quickly as fans have recently jumped back onto his ever growing band wagon.

Coming into the season, Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell made it publicly known that patience would be key for his development. Still, the media and fans alike placed unrealistic expectations on him the very instance he laced up for the Purple and Gold.

"I always have trouble figuring it out early but as the season progresses I kinda figure it out. In college being a combo guard is tough — knowing when to get guys involved and knowing when to score. And as the season went along I started to figure it out. At this level I feel like it’s going to be the same."

His struggles were apparent to start the season and his numbers directly reflected this. Through his first 20 games, all of which he started, Russell failed to score 20 points one time and his assist numbers lingered around an underwhelming three per contest.

The NBA is a galaxy far, far away from the competition found in the NCAA and unless your name is Lebron James, the learning curve is steep. Players are faster, stronger, smarter, and down right just better in the NBA. Heck, insert almost any positive adjective you can muster up and it’ll likely be true.

With that in mind, Russell’s self-fulfilling prophecy is finally beginning to take shape. Despite going 1-3 in the past four games and coming off the bench for two of them, Russell is hovering around 20 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists per game.

One thing that must be mentioned is that, while fans were prompted to believe that D’Angelo Russell would easily average double-digit assists per contest due to his stellar passing highlights (see above), he only recorded two 10+ assist games in his entire tenure at Ohio State. In fact, he actually had more rebounds than assists.

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With that in mind, Russell’s performances over the past four contests are close to reflecting his college averages of 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.

As mentioned previously, it matters not whether a player comes off the bench or starts, but how many minutes they end up playing, and Russell’s increased minutes per game directly attests to this. Averaging around 34 minutes in the past four contests, Kobe’s decision to finally take a lesser role and let the young guys play is paying obvious dividends.

The Los Angeles Lakers passed on Jahlil Okafor, who has debatably been the best rookie so far this season, because they had faith in D’Angelo Russell’s ability to actualize his limitless potential. The fact that he is not only beginning to do so, but more so, doing so under Kaiser Byron Scott is his most impressive feat thus far.

Next: Lakers: Byron Scott Still Just Doesn't Get It

Fully expect All-Rookie First Team honors and if his play continues to improve, a crowded race for the much coveted Rookie of the Year title.