D’Angelo Russell might be ending the Lakers’ title dreams

D’Angelo Russell was the main player that the Los Angeles Lakers got in return for Russell Westbrook during the 2023 trade deadline. While Russell had his flaws, anything was better than Westbrook as he is still haunting the Lakers to this day.

Flaws aside, Russell has been really solid for the Lakers thus far. It has not always been perfect but he has had a few huge offensive games that carried the Lakers in the first two series. He might not be the most important player on the Lakers but Russell has definitely been important.

However, his flaws are really starting to shine through in the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets. We are only one game in but Russell played so poorly defensively in Game 1 as part of Darvin Ham’s attempt at being cute that he ended up hardly playing in the second half.

The defense was miles better without Russell on the floor. Heck, even Nuggets head coach Mike Malone commented on Russell, calling out the fact that his team had a lot of success against the former second-overall pick in the first half (h/t SB Nation).

"“I felt we did a great job on D’Angelo Russell — so great that he wasn’t even in the game much in the second half.”"

It gets worse, as Bruce Brown openly admitted that the Nuggets’ game plan was to attack Russell on the defensive end. Russell is turning into a legitimate defensive liability, so much to the point that the Lakers might be better off benching him for most of this series.

The problem is, benching Russell may also take away his biggest strength: his confidence on the offensive end of the court.

The Lakers have a serious D’Angelo Russell conundrum that could end the team’s title dreams.

Team sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that there are internal concerns that if Russell is moved to the bench he could view it as a demotion and the team would “lose” him as a result. Ah, so the old D’Lo really is back.

The Lakers cannot keep throwing D’Lo out there is he is getting destroyed on the defensive end just to make him happy. But they also would be losing a huge offensive piece that can swing entire quarters (and the outcome of entire games) with a hot scoring streak.

In a perfect world, Russell would be a true professional about the situation, realize that the Lakers are better off if he comes off the bench, and thrive in that role. Nobody on Denver’s bench can stop D’Lo on the perimeter and if Ham picks his spots well, they can minimize the defensive struggles that D’Lo has.

But if Ham just keeps throwing him out there because he doesn’t want D’Lo to lose confidence on offense then it is going to be a losing recipe. This is the same kind of problem the team had with Westbrook. Russell is a much better fit with a higher ceiling, but if he quits on his team in the Western Conference Finals then that will be all she wrote.

Every fan should have known that this was a possibility when the Lake Show traded for Russell at the deadline. Now fans need to hope that Ham and the team can corral Russell and keep this from ending the title run.