The Los Angeles Lakers wouldn’t really trade D’Angelo Russell, would they?
According to Brian Gettzeiler of Hoops Critic and Sirius XM NBA Radio, the rookie point guard, taken No. 2 overall this past year, has been made available for trade talks by the Lakers.
In taking to people around the league on who has been made available in trade talks a very surprising name has come up: DeAngelo Russell
— Brian Geltzeiler (@BGeltzNBA) January 28, 2016
Playing 27 minutes a night for Los Angeles, Russell is averaging 12.2 points, 3.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 41.7 percent from the floor and 32.7 percent from behind the arc.
One would think the Lakers would need quite the haul to trade away a first-year player who has yet to hit the age of 20. Especially considering Russell hasn’t exactly been sour milk this year for a team in need of talented stars to rebuild after Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour has concluded.
However, head coach Byron Scott recently pointed out a trend towards “cockiness,” though hesitated to say it was a problem for the young guard. This occurred after Scott benched Russell for taking, and missing, a high volume of shots (four-of-12) against the Dallas Mavericks.
In response, Russell quipped “I don’t know if [Scott] would’ve said that if I was making those shots,” per Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com.
Perhaps this was nothing big and has nothing to do with the rumor that Los Angeles would listen to trade offers. Perhaps it does. Whatever the case may be, it is going to be interesting to see what Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak can come up with over the next couple of seasons to transform this franchise back into a contender.