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Los Angeles Lakers: Fans have mixed reactions to D’Angelo Russell trade

By Shereen Rayan

Jan 10, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell (1) reacts during the second quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 10, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell (1) reacts during the second quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s that time again, NBA teams including the Los Angeles Lakers are preparing for the NBA Draft, but instead, huge trades are culminating on Draft Day, this season, they are starting days prior.

Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell was supposed to be off the table, but that was not to be. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka held their noses and served him and Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.

There are so many D’lo fans of the internet proclaiming their love and adoration of the 21-year-old prolific guard. That said, anyone who dares to mention anything other than a spewing of compliments is looked at as someone not worthy of being a real Lakers fan.

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Not so! This fan will tell you that although there was times ‘ice in his veins’ Russell wowed me, and I was cheering out loud, but I was hoping I would hear more about his possible mamba mentality. Yes, he scored a lot, but he also played a lot of minutes, so he was doing his job.

It seems things went a bit downhill after the Nick Young secret snaps which were leaked to the public. In this TMZ La La land city, paparazzi are everywhere and come in many forms including anyone who has the guts to film a snap chat which is supposed to disappear.

The Lakers had done well in their young season, but things started to fall apart chemistry-wise on the team, what Russell did was not cool, even though he had profusely apologized.

Any NBA team looking for a young, high-scoring guard who has some experience in the NBA with some huge upside would look no further than Russell, and that’s just what the Brooklyn Nets did. They also took on Mozgov’s humongous contract, one of the biggest issues the Lakers front office had.

WOJ BOMB! Wojnarowski reporting the trade at 3:09 PST and Twitter went crazy! Here are some of the reactions:

Queue the Nick Swaggy P tweets, thinking now maybe he stays a Laker? First the media…

Then the fans.

And let’s not forget…

You have to know that this was a total possibility and that Magic spent time with D’lo, took him to CAA Pro Day even. The NBA is a business, and Magic was dealt a bad hand with two overloaded contracts (Deng and Mozgov), so you can be sure Russell was aware this could happen.

Next: 4 reasons why trading D'Angelo Russell was the right move

What was a surprise though, was that teams weren’t willing to trade him for a top 12 pick. Whatever side of the fence you fall on, you have to be happy the Lakers have more flexibility now than they had.

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