Los Angeles Lakers: 4 reasons to avoid signing D’Angelo Russell

1. He will likely command big money

The Brooklyn Nets had a very successful season. With Russell and an ensemble cast of role players, they made the playoffs as the sixth seed in a suddenly-strong Eastern Conference. It would seem logical that they would want to keep as many of their main performers as possible.

Now that Russell can say he’s an All-Star, you’d think he’s going to ask for big money – and likely get it. If the Nets strike out on Kyrie Irving, one would expect them to offer Russell a sizable contract, if not a max contract, and make him the cornerstone of a franchise that has been the laughingstock of the New York City area for their entire existence.

If the Nets don’t offer him a max or near-max contract, at least one other team is bound to in a summer that could very well change the complexion of much of the association.

No matter how much cap space the Lakers will officially have this summer, why should they pay that kind of money to a guy with the weaknesses we talked about in this article?

I personally think they’d be better off splitting up that money on three very solid players so that they can have strong depth, but if they must sign a max player, give me Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker or Jimmy Butler over D’Angelo Russell any day of the week.