The worst-kept secret in the NBA is that the Los Angeles Lakers are open to trading D'Angelo Russell. Head coach JJ Redick wants to help Russell achieve a career year in 2024-25, but general manager Rob Pelinka seems to have different priorities.
The latest development on the Russell front has sent many into a tailspin, but the response to the revelation has erred on the side of overreaction.
Russell is off to a tough start to the 2024-25 season, shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from beyond the arc. It's only been five games, but his uncharacteristic inefficiency has some questioning if the trade market will dry up.
According to Sam Amick and John Hollinger of The Athletic, those concerns are well-founded, as the Utah Jazz are uninterested in a package centering around Russell and multiple first-round draft picks in a potential trade for center Walker Kessler.
The obvious context is that Utah already has a productive scoring guard in Collin Sexton, and seems to value Kessler as a high-level player. Furthermore, the Jazz previously informed the New York Knicks that it wanted at least two first-round picks for Kessler in a potential trade.
That may reveal that Russell isn't the player who can complete the trade for Kessler, but it does nothing to confirm what his market value will be by February.
There's too much time between now and the trade deadline to panic
Russell is struggling through five games, but expecting him to sustain this level of play would be naive. He's coming off of a 2023-24 season during which he averaged 18.0 points, 6.3 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 3.0 three-point field goals made on .456/.415/.828 shooting.
Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Kyle Lowry, and Rusesll are the only players in NBA history to average at least 18.0 points, 6.0 assists, and 3.0 threes on 40.0 percent shooting or better from distance.
Furthermore, Russell has accumulated averages of 19.2 points, 6.5 assists, 1.0 steal, and 2.9 three-point field goals made on .438/.377/.810 since 2018-19. Even factoring in his poor start to the 2024-25 season, that's a more adequate sample size of productive and generally efficient play.
With this in mind, there's every reason to believe that he'll continue to shoot well from beyond the arc and produce at a level that teams will covet come the trade deadline.
A season ago, Russell was forced to deal with distractions that included being benched by former head coach Darvin Ham. That fractured reputation inevitably permeated the NBA, thus resulting in teams being reluctant to execute a trade.
It's also worth noting that Russell entered the day of the 2024 trade deadline with a player option that teams were nervous about acquiring.
Some will argue that this was due to teams not wanting him for more than one season, but teams' general inactivity during the 2024 offseason is proof of how reluctant executives were to take on long-term salaries. In 2025, Russell will have an expiring contract and an undeniably high talent level.
If the goal is to trade Russell, then doing so in 2025 will be significantly more manageable than the failed attempts from 2024—leaving fans with no reason to panic in November.
If you're still feeling uneasy, remember: If every other avenue fails to produce results, he'll be off the books by July 1.