Lakers News: Russell Looks Forward to Playing With Clarkson
By Alex Torres
The NBA is a guard dominated league, which is something you probably heard from plenty of people as they debated whether the Lakers should go big or small in the draft.
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As we all know, the Lakers went with D’Angelo Russell, the guard out of Ohio State. The Lakers felt he was the best player available and they shocked a great deal of people, including the teams that were picking after the Lakers.
The emergence of Jordan Clarkson made it easy to assume that the Lakers would go with Jahlil Okafor, but Mitch Kupchak stated that he didn’t see a problem with having Russell and Clarkson on the floor together. The number two overall pick agreed. According to the official Twitter account of the Lakers, Russell can definitely see himself playing with Clarkson:
D'Angelo says that he "can definitely play with" Jordan Clarkson, and that having two ballhandlers at once "gives us the advantage."
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) June 29, 2015
Both players are guards, but both players bring something different to the table. Clarkson is an explosive and athletic guard who can attack the basket. Clarkson worked on his game during his rookie campaign and became a better shooter and passer as the year went on. He was selected to the All-Rookie First Team, which showed how hard he worked to improve and become a better basketball player.
Russell on the other hand is an amazing passer and handles the ball extremely well. While he won’t blow you away with athleticism, Russell’s high IQ and shooting ability make him a dangerous threat when he has the rock in his hands. Russell can be a special player, but he will need to put the work in for him to develop into one of the better guards in this league.
Byron Scott needs to figure out a way how to play both Clarkson and Russell at the same time. Maybe not right away, but these two are the future and eventually they will be the starting backcourt of the Lakers.