The Los Angeles Lakers can rest easy knowing that their young players have already started working hard to get better this offseason
Just a week ago, Magic Johnson revealed that he would be taking Lakers’ guard, D’Angelo Russell, under his wing this summer, for better or for worse. This is to say, while Magic was a great player for the Purple and Gold, his comments since leaving the league are suspect at best.
Adding to his Magic news, Monday night, Russell posted a photo on Instagram of a “Robbie Haught Workouts” shirt, implying that he was working out with the Cleveland Basketball School head trainer, Robbie Haught.
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Lurking a bit harder, this assumption was thought to be confirmed as the first video on Haught’s personal Instagram was of D’Angelo Russell training alongside Phoenix Suns’ standout, Devin Booker, but it appears the video was from last offseason despite being re-posted two days ago.
Booker who fell to 13th overall in the 2015 Draft demonstrated that he was wildly underrated coming into the league posting six 30+ point games this season along with a series of 20 point outbursts.
Earlier this year, CBS even went as far as taking him fifth overall in a 2015 Re-Draft over the likes of draftmates Emmanuel Mudiay, Stanley Johnson and Myles Turner.
Seeing how Booker and Russell worked out together last offseason it’s fair to assume that they could do so again this year.
This becomes interesting for many reasons one being that despite developing a well documented bromance with fellow back court mate, Jordan Clarkson, the duo have not been seen training together this summer.
Yes, the young Lakers may be taking strides to get better individually, each getting in the gym early, but it would also be great if they worked out together in order to build more chemistry for the upcoming season. But, hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
Last year, as the season went on it became apparent that Russell was more than capable to compete at the NBA level but his immaturity was called out by Byron Scott on more than one occasion, as well being put on display during his debacle with Nick Young.
That said, hopefully an offseason of training with Magic Johnson paired with his one year of experience in the league is enough to result in a more mature Russell going forward.
Edit: The video re-posted two days ago on Haught’s Instagram was from last offseason but Russell is indeed working out with Haught again currently
Just confirmed w/@RobbieHaught it was from the preseason. He is, however, currently working with him. I stand by him returning ready to go.
— Jabari Ali Davis (@JabariDavisNBA) May 10, 2016
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Regardless, it’s nice to know that Russell is already working hard to put his past behind him.