Lakers: Five reasons Byron Scott must be fired this season
By Tom West
5) The benching of D’Angelo Russell
When entering the NBA as a rookie, the toughest position to take on is point guard. Not only are you responsible for running the offense and taking care of the ball, but you have to do so against some of the best players in the league. From Stephen Curry to hyper athletes like Russell Westbrook, there are more stars at the one than any other position.
That alone gives D’Angelo Russell a bit of a pass this season. He’s just 19 years old, and he can’t be expected to look like a franchise player every night.
He’s only shot 40.6 percent so far and hasn’t always kept good possession of the ball. While he hasn’t been that efficient from deep (31.3 percent from three), his 4.5 rebounds, three assists and one steal in 27 minutes per game aren’t too bad. He’s also finishing well when he gets to the rim too, making 61 percent of his shots within three feet.
The flashy passes have been there, the vision has been there, the odd scoring burst has been there — they just haven’t appeared consistently. Ideally they would, but that can’t always be the case. As a 19-year-old with the pressure of being a starting point guard playing next to a legend who expects excellence like Kobe, it’s understandable Russell is going to have some hard times.
Like Julius Randle, Russell was only able to get in more minutes during the Lakers’ last game against the Minnesota Timberwolves because Kobe talked to Scott in the third quarter and told him to leave the young players on the floor. Kobe sat for a lot of the second half, and allowed guys like Russell to surpass 30 minutes on the night instead.
That kind of mindset shouldn’t just be coming from Kobe, it should be starting with Byron Scott. If there is any way Russell is going to come out of his rookie season siginficiantly stronger with more confidence, it’s going to be from playing a large role.
He needs to play through the good times and the bad times. Admittedly, there will be a lot more bad for the Lakers, but that’s what needs to happen if Russell can fine-tune his passing, improve his ball handling and possession, and develop his jumper. In all aspects of his growth, he is suffering because Scott is limiting his minutes by placing him on the bench.
Next: Scott is playing Kobe too much