Lakers insider speculates on what team will do with D’Angelo Russell

Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell saw his name get thrown around in multiple reports in the months leading up to the start of the 2024-25 regular season. First, the Lakers reportedly offered to trade him to the Golden State Warriors in an attempt to land Klay Thompson, who ended up getting dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in a sign-and-trade.

Furthermore, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported in September that the Lakers do not view him as part of their core moving forward.

“I mean, at the end of the day, if the Lakers are going to be the championship-contending team that people want them to be, you have to have — in theory what they really need to do is turn D’Angelo Russell into a guy who can both hit threes and guard,” Bontemps said. “Austin Reaves is a guy they see clearly as a guy who’s part of their core going forward. D’Angelo Russell is not, which is why he was on this two-year makeshift deal in the first place. It’s why he opted into his contract this summer, because he knew there wasn’t gonna be a big market for his services.”

Someone asked The Athletic’s Jovan Buha after Los Angeles’ season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves if the Lakers will deal Russell, and he provided the following response.

“I think it’s too early to — I don’t wanna overreact to this game in any direction,” Buha said. “I think if anything, this game was just a confirmation of a lot of what we already knew and saw. So, I would assume that the plan is still to at least explore the D-Lo situation down the road. But I don’t know if his game necessarily swayed it really in either direction. I think it’s always kind of been if they’re gonna make a trade, he’s the one guy.

“Now, one thing I will say on this is obviously if the Lakers get out to a really good start and are just a really good team, it could go one of two ways right? You could look at it as, ‘Do we want to break this group up? Is it worth it?’ Or you could look at, ‘Okay, well we’re in a position to potentially contend, to compete for a championship. And now let’s do that win-now trade. Let’s take the big swing. Let’s put the first-round pick — or both first-round picks — on the table.’

“So, could go one of two ways. I think at a minimum, if they are looking really good and this continues, then I think you have to at least think about attaching a first-round pick to a guy like Gabe [Vincent], Vando (Jarred Vanderbilt) depending on where he’s at with his injury progress. Maybe look at some of the bench guys and say, ‘Can we upgrade with the pick and bring in another piece?’ And maybe you keep D-Lo or you shift his role depending on the type of player you bring in. So that’s one thing, but for now, I don’t think this really swings the D-Lo conversation either way.”

The Lakers beat the Timberwolves on Tuesday, but Russell looked rusty from a scoring standpoint. He finished with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 from 3-point range.

There is still one positive takeaway to glean from Russell’s showing, however, and that was his impact as a playmaker. Russell dished out a team-high five assists while committing only one turnover. He was one of the Lakers’ best playmakers last season, considering he averaged 6.3 assists per game.

Russell will try to find his footing on the offensive end in Los Angeles’ upcoming matchup against Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns on Friday night. The Suns played their season opener on Wednesday, and they beat the Los Angeles Clippers by three points in overtime behind 49 combined points from Durant and Bradley Beal.

Perhaps the Suns are an ideal team for Russell to regain his rhythm against, as Phoenix’s starting point guard, Tyus Jones, is undersized and not exactly renowned for his presence on the defensive side of the ball. He’s quite the talented offensive player though, so Russell will have his hands full trying to keep him in check as a playmaker.

Expect to see Russell connected to other teams in trade rumors once the trade deadline starts to draw near. Fans of the Lakers shouldn’t be shocked if he isn’t a member of the squad by the end of the season.