Comparing D’Angelo Russell’s first season with the Lakers to the rest of the 2016 rookie class
D’Angelo Russell lived through a unique, tumultuous, and celebratory season full of life lessons in his rookie season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
More lakers: Lakers 2015-16 Season Roster Grades: D'Angelo Russell
However, let’s put aside all the drama of the season including Kobe’s every changing minutes, the exposing of Nick Young’s personal life, and not being played in the fourth quarter when needed, and focus on rookie NBA stats. How did Russell perform with respect to his NBA rookie peers this season?
Russell managed to improve throughout the season, regardless of all the drama and losses, and he came into his own by the time Kobe was shooting out the lights in his last game. Russell played so well this season overall that he made the All-Second NBA Rookie team.
2015-16 NBA ALL-ROOKIE FIRST TEAM
2015-16 NBA ALL-ROOKIE SECOND TEAM
An impressive feat given that Russell’s Lakers only won 17 and lost 65 games this season. Let’s dive into his stats and see how they match up against the rest of the 2015-16 NBA rookie class.
Starting first with steals, we’ll go category by category to see how Russell stacked up to his peers.
Note: All ranks are in reference to among rookies who played 800 minutes or more.
Next: Steals
Steals
Steals are often pertinent to the point guard position as they either have the ball or are defending one the ball more than any other player on the court. As such, the ability to force turnovers is huge.
As far as steals, D-Loading came in second overall behind T.J. McConnell. McConnell was an undrafted free agent 76ers point guard out of the University of Arizona who played his way into the NBA and into a role on the albeit depleted Sixers roster.
Here’s a look at how the total steals count broke down among rookies last season:
Russell and McConnell ended the season within two steals of each other and separating themselves from the rest of the rookie class. They ranked No. 43 and 38 respectively overall in the league.
There may or may not be any correlation, but Russell and McConnell played for teams who ended up being the two worst in the League. Maybe the lack of success led to them having a chip on their shoulders and they felt they had much more to prove than other rookies. No one can no for sure, but what’s important is that Russell managed to shine in terms of thefts this season.
But what about setting up his teammates with his passing?
Next: Assists
Assists
As was shown during the season, assists (not threes) show a stronger correlation to wins than any other stat. That is, if your team has the potential to win. Subsequently, it’s important to see what Russell did in regards to distributing for scores as a rookie.
Here’s a look at the assist totals among rookies:
Emmanuel Mudiay eked out the top spot on the rookie list at 372 and McConnell had just five fewer assists as the No. 2 rookie. Russell landed at No. 3 with 266 total assists on the year. Russell ended up ranked 51st overall in total assists. Or, in other words, Russell landed in the top 10.8% in the league in assists. Impressive.
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An interesting wrinkle, Mudiay dished out 106 more assists than D’Angelo in 13 fewer games. Note that Mudiay started in18 more games than Russell. Even more shocking is that McConnell only started 17 games and played 462 fewer minutes than Mudiay and 653 fewer minutes than Russell and still managed to dish out the second-most assists on the year.
Taking that into consideration, if there were a stat for assists per minute, then McConnell would have been at the top of the list with .23 assists per minute. Marcelo Huertas (the other Lakers rookie) at .21 would be in second, Mudiay at .18 third, Jerian Grant at .14 in fourth and Russell would end up in fifth place recording a .12 assists per minute.
For comparison, non-rookie and regular season NBA MVP Stephen Curry logged 527 assists and came in at No. 10 this season. The No. 1 player in the league in assists was none other than Sacramento’s Rajon Rondo who racked up a whopping 839. Russell Westbrook at No. 2 nearly tied Rondo with 834 assists on the season.
But enough about assists. Let’s move out beyond the arc and look at Russell’s three-point shooting as a rookie.
Next: Three-Point Shot
Three-Point Shooting
With the evolution of point guards in the modern NBA and with where they are positioned on the floor the majority of the time, looking at three-point proficiency and efficiency is another mark where it’s intriguing to see how Russell measured up.
Looking at the rookie class, Russell ranked No. 1 in both 3-point shots made and taken.
Russell reigns supreme in three-point land among his rookie peers—at least in terms of made threes.
Devin Booker and Russell wound up at the top of the rankings for both thee-point shots attempted and made, but Russell was even shockingly more efficient than many of his peers as well.
Glaringly obvious here is that Russell attempted 81 more three-point shots than Booker and it makes sense that Russell would have made more shots. But if you look at the percentages, Russell shot 35.1 percent while Booker made only 34.3 percent of his attempts from deep.
What’s more interesting is that Russell made an average of 1.6 three-point shots per game, while Booker made 1.3 and Porzingis 1.1 per game. Though Russell ranked well among rookies, he paled in comparison to league leaders as Steph Curry averaged 5.1, Klay Thompson 3.5, and Kevin Durant 2.6. Russell’s 1.6 average equals Kawhi Leonard and Dirk Nowitzki‘s average.
The Lakers have themselves a legitimate three-point shooter. He came in at No. 33 overall in the League behind No. 30 Kobe Bryant making just three more at 133.
While having the deep threat is big for the Lakers, they also need Russell to be a more versatile scorer than just that. Therefore, let’s look at his overall field goals made.
Next: Overall Scoring
Scoring
Russell came in third in field goals made, hitting on 41 percent of his total shots on the season. The only two rookies ahead of him in terms of made field goals were Karl-Anthony Towns, who shot 54.3 percent, and Jahlil Okafor, who shot 50.8 percent.
Overall, Russell ranked No. 69 in FG’s made in the NBA this season with 392, which puts him in the top 14.5 percent in the NBA. Curry topped those rankings with 805 made field goals with No. 2 being LeBron James at 737.
Now let’s take a quick look at D’Angelo Russell’s total stats for his rookie season:
Former Lakers head coach Byron Scott was accused many times of not playing the young players more. Well, Russell played for 2,259 minutes, ranking him 74th in the NBA.
As far as rookies go, D’Angelo played more than 22 of his fellow freshman, coming in at No. 2. The only rookie who played more minutes than Russell was Karl-Anthony Towns, who played for 2,626 minutes.
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Though it may not have been as much as some fans wanted, Russell was given a huge chance this season to show how valuable he is to the Lakers and he stepped up to the plate. Ranking in the top three among his peers in multiple key stats means he was given time to develop and he performed like a No. 2 pick should play.