Should Los Angeles Lakers have traded D’Angelo Russell, let Julius Randle walk?
D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle are both playing well since leaving the Los Angeles Lakers. Did the organization make a mistake in letting both players go?
Just about two years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets. This past summer, the Lakers decided not to sign Julius Randle, who later went to the New Orleans Pelicans.
With Russell becoming an All-Star this season and Randle averaging just under 20 points per game, many Lakers fans have been wondering if Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka made a mistake in not keeping them.
Let’s dig into the advanced stats and see if Russell and Randle really are playing great basketball and if the Lakers front office should have made keeping both players a priority.
Here’s the trade:
On June 20, 2017, the Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets for Brook Lopez and the 27th overall pick in the 2017-2018 NBA draft.
Let’s look at how D’Angelo Russell has done this season.
Yes, he’s an All-Star, but he’s not a true All-Star. He’s replacing Victor Oladipo on the Eastern Conference Squad because Oladipo is out for the season with a gruesome injury.
Here are Russell’s stats:
- 20 PPG on 18 FGA, 6.6 APG, 3.7 RPG, .436 FG%
Compare them to the player Russell was essentially traded for in Kyle Kuzma
- 19.1 PPG on 16 FGA, 2.3 APG, 5.6 RPG, .467 FG%
Both player’s stats are similar with Russell having better passing stats and Kuzma having better efficiency numbers. Perhaps you like the way Russell slowly meanders into the lane looking for shots or passing opportunities, I’ll give you that. I prefer the way Kuzma plays; he takes quick 3-pointers or explodes to the cup.
I’m willing to admit that Russell and Kuzma are both good young players, but I haven’t mentioned the other player who stepped into Russell’s starting PG spot after the trade, Lonzo Ball.
Lonzo’s stats aren’t very impressive for the season, but he’s been playing alongside LeBron James. LeBron is like one of those fish who swims next to hippos, constantly pecking away at the algae and other sea grime that sticks on to their skin. Except instead of LeBron jabbing away at Lonzo’s body, he’s pecked at his numbers all season long.
LeBron only played one game in January, so let’s examine Ball’s numbers during the first month of the year to see what they look like when he’s not hindered by James’s presence:
Lonzo Ball’s January Stats:
- 11.1 PPG, 7 APG, 6.1 RPG, .400 FG%, 101.8 DEFRTG, which was 29th in the NBA (minimum 8 games played, 15 MPG)
D’Angelo Russell is a better scorer than Lonzo, there’s no doubt about that, but Lonzo does everything else on the basketball court better than Russell.
Lonzo’s ranked 7th among all point guards in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus-Minus, while Russell is ranked 55th. I believe that both players are ranked too low.
I think Lonzo should be ranked 3rd among PG’s, behind Marcus Smart and Kyle Lowry, while Russell should be ranked 45th right behind Stephen Curry. Either way, though, its clear that Lonzo is a much better defensive point guard than Russell.
Continuing on, ESPN has Lonzo worth 3.09 wins on the season, even though he’s missed ten games, which is based almost entirely on his defense, while Russell is worth 4.83 wins on the season, which is centered around his offense.
Lonzo and Russell have very different games, and I’ll admit that right now, during D’Angelo’s 4th season and Lonzo’s 2nd season, Russell’s offense is slightly more valuable than Ball’s defense. With that said, in two years’ time, I feel confident that every overall advanced stat like VORP or RPM will favor Lonzo Ball.
The Russell trade did three very important things for the Lakers:
- Cleared away Mozgov’s contract, which freed up the money the Lakers needed to sign LeBron and also helped open up enough cap room to sign another max free-agent this summer as well.
- Brought in Kyle Kuzma.
- Opened up the starting PG position for Lonzo Ball
I believe that Kyle Kuzma by himself is a better player than Russell, but the D’Angelo trade also paved the way for Ball, who is a defensive dynamo. Dealing D’Angelo and Mozgov also allowed the Lakers to get under the salary cap during the summer of 2017.
In a perfect world the Lakers would have been able to keep Russell and pair him with Ball in the backcourt and then the Purple and Gold could have used the 30th pick in the draft to pick Kuzma instead of Hart.
Unfortunately, the world and the NBA aren’t perfect, though, Magic and Pelinka inherited the salary cap mess made by Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss that they had to clean it up. The deal they made with the Nets that sent out Russell was the best move they could have made and any other front office would have done the same thing.
For any fan who still believes the Lakers should have held onto Russell here’s one more stat:
Russell has a + 0.3 Net Rating for the season, which puts him in 105th place out of all qualified guards in the NBA. He’s not exactly crushing it for his team.