[Slater] D’Angelo Russell on adjusting to his role with the Nets after his trade from the Lakers: “I’ll never take being able to play free basketball like this for granted again.”
Bro gets to chuck and play no defense bc we wanna lose. Must be so damn fun ngl
this is a contract year for him though so he shouldn’t be doing too much of that
The chucking would boost his ppg, so it’s a win win
NBA front offices aren’t NBA social media, they use context and not just stats
Edit: ok, NBA front offices SHOULD use context
Are you fucking sure of that?
“Wow this DLo fellow scores a lot of points!” -Lakers FO in a few months
I mean Warriors is the same. lol
Didn’t they get wiggins for him though?
Beal has giant contract AND a no-trade clause because… reasons
Tommy Shepherd was one of the last truly idiotic GMs
Last time this contract, and that GM, were brought up on this sub, I Designated him a basketball terrorist- i stand by that.
The lack of dlo trade offers make me kinda sure of it
naw they look at shooting percentage
Bro you’re a Laker fan, you saw the Lakers trade for Westbrook
Too real brother
FOs aren’t infallible entities. You’re a Lakers fan, you should know this better than anyone
There will always be an idiot GM who overpays for empty stats.
“We can fix his TS%”
Wizards erasure
The Suns traded for Bradley Beal, I wouldn’t be so sure
Shooting splits are more important then PPG
Nothing is more important than podcasts per game
MVPG3
At this point of his career people know what they’re getting with D’lo. He’s a streaky scorer who on a contender can only really do good in a bench role. There’s a lot of those in the league though and every team only needs one.
If he can’t hit his jump shots he really can’t score. He can’t get to the rim anymore
He never got to the rim
That’s not really been his game for a long time
Can D’lo really ever be in the rotation on a real contender?
I don’t think so, because even if he only took on a scoring role off the bench on a contender, he’s too much of a turnstile defensively
D’lo to me embodies the quintessential pickup player who does the iso thing on offense and gives poorly masked flailing effort on defense but sort of talks a lot to seem like he’s an engaged team player. If he was 5’9, he’d be that guy we all knew at our gym
he’s a great pointer. loves to point and let you know that he knows someone needs to get that guy. not him or anything, he’s too busy pointing. but he knows
Lol why is this so accurate.
He truly plays like players with one airpod on.
Not his play is just too unpredictable. He’s more about stats than winning in general. Being bad on defense but with effort, he would still be on a contender. But he gives no effort to recover.
D’lo is the type of player where you will thumb to an early December game, see him hit 3 3s in a quarter, and then get totally deluded by his confidence and forget that he is a terrible playmaker and traffic cone on defense.
I mean… he already has been depending on your definition of a “real” contender.
Multiple times he said he will work on his defense and he never does lol
Yeah, he is pretty much who he is at this point now with 10 years in the league.
no one is giving him another max deal or anything close to it. he should enjoy this stretch role player contracts the only thing he’ll be getting going forward
He’s a MLE at this point. What team is signing him for 20 or 15 mil a year?
If they don’t sign any big FA’s, the Nets might sign him for something around that just to reach the salary floor.
At this point of his career nobody is watching DLo nets defense tape
What are you talking about? There’s always a few tanking teams that desperately need somebody to put up 26 points to make the young fans buy jerseys while rarely winning games. Also, later in the season there’s always a chance they can trade him to a contender for another bad contract or injured $18 mil per year player and get a couple 2nd round picks in return.
He averaged 18⁄6 on a playoff team last year on 45⁄40 and still had to opt in to his player option… I don’t think anything he does is going to hurt him, his rep is literally in the dumpster.
He is what he is at this point though, no one is gonna be surprised by him suddenly being an elite defender
whats he supposed to do. if he tries too hard to win nets wont play him lol. he wont be out of the league anyways, hes to good
D’lo is just modern day Ricky Davis. Unserious player.
Yo thats some serious hate, he’s not that unserious he’s just a streaky shooter. Ricky Davis was selfish and really didn’t understand why he wasn’t better or well liked but d.lo at least likes to get others involved and seems to at least understand the game both on and off the court (minus the swaggy p shit ofcourse)
Getting run out of LA, GSW and Minnesota when they’re trying to win isn’t a coincidence.
He was also brought into all those places while trying to win as well and wasn’t like he was ever traded for scraps. Yo I wasn’t even trying to cape for him that hard it’s just I don’t think people understand what Ricky Davis was if they’re just out here calling d.lo that. Thats not what this is at all
Yeah, Ricky Davis was a bit too harsh. Ironically, DLo is kind of like the Swaggy P player archetype.
I swear it’s like people like watching him run around the court with his hands by his side.
Hate the DLo slander. No miracle WCF run without him. Super fun to watch.
Ironically, last year was probably a career year for him under Darvin Ham whom he hated
Lebron does this on the lakers
player archetype: tank commander
Where’s Byron Scott?
Yup. A tank commander needs a tank admiral
D’Lo learned from the best. That was his first head coach if I recall correctly.
Reporting for duty
Funny enough, this would be his first time tank commanding… despite his reputation as a losing player, for the last 7 years he has consistently been the starting point guard on .500 or better teams. In regards to the “free” comment, I think people forget that DLo only had one season as a 1st option… and he was an All-Star and took the Nets to the playoffs. He’s been a 3rd option ever since. His growth as that kind of player was essentially stunted. He completely changed his game to fit on the Wolves behind Ant and KAT then again to fit next to AD and Lebron and it clearly hasn’t worked out for him. Look, I would never want him on a team I’m rooting for but he’s an extremely talented player who only seems to be acknowledged for his flaws. I mean, just pushing two playoff teams like the Knicks and Lakers to the wire with a roster as garbage as the Nets says something in of itself.
Eh if he’s your first option your team is not good.
If he’s your second option your team isn’t good, if he’s your first option your team is trying to get the 1st pick in the upcoming draft.
Yup.
Insert the 2020 Warriors who were 1 pick away from getting Anthony Edwards (Warriors had the best chance at no 1 pick, but Minnesota won it).
If you’re trying to get the first pick put me in
If hes your third option, team isn’t good either. Look at Lakers.
no one is saying the nets are good
The more he has the balls the more his team loses according to his history.
S Tier/ legendary
Or spark plug 6th man
Lol what a quote
“I prefer to play losing basketball” ahh quote
“I can finally get paid to not win games”
Some people think we play to win. Few really know we actually strive to play free basketball. When you catch lightning in a bottle, you should never take it for granted
He was still playing losing basketball for the lakers tho
Yeh but he got more death threats.
yea but consider how many Lakers fans suicide from watching him play
But over there he had to try to think about winning games. Here he doesn’t have to.
Making \(18M to play basketball with no expectations. Shiiiit. I’ll do it for \)10M
the bravery of this man!
“I love playing with no expectations” basically lmao
Me irl
honestly truth, playing good basketball and not having to worry about winning is the best
He’s not.playing “good” basketball tho.
I mean, that makes sense. If you love playing ball and getting buckets, I wouldn’t even judge you if you’d prefer playing in Brooklyn.
Right? He makes millions of dollars per year to play basketball how he wants and live in New York. If thats what he wants to do that’s amazing
We get so caught up in winning but some dudes just want to hoop and make money
Well good for him, but my NBA fandom is based on wanting to watch my team win. Unless he’s on an extremely favorable contract (which he’s not), he doesn’t help in that regard.
Not going to lie, it does sound pretty fun
AND get paid millions to do it
Edit: thats more than what I could ever posssibly make even with multiple lifetimes
Multi Millions to get off from april till October sounds amazing
Makes sense, pickup and rec league games were always way more fun than actual organized team sports
imagine being able to shoot as many 3s as you want and lookin swaggy with no repercussions, but you’re at the highest level in the world AND the team benefits from losing? that’s the life!
Tank commander
He’s either a 6-man on a contender or a tank commander - makes sense that he wants to maximize his playing time / earning potential.
A 6 man who has to be okay with not playing more than 10-15 MPG in some playoff series. He has some teams in earlier rounds that he can cook, would never trust him in a finals series though.
I mean if he could actually get there(finals). That might be the only time he actually Try. In the mean time, Full ON Tank Mindset Mode lmao.
His earning potential is cooked. He damages his reputation in MN and killed it for good with LA. This guy is just not built for success in the nba
6th man on a contender is a huge stretch. That role typically involves playing some level of defense and DLo doesn’t do that.
He was playing in LA and with Lebron at that. That spotlight and expectations must have gotten annoying. Never forget he played with Kobe as well even though it was towards the of Kobe’s career. Dealing with that spotlight that comes with LA and two prolific figures like Kobe and Bron can take its toll. Kobe still demanded greatness even when the lakers were hot garbage in his final years.
DLO now gets to tank on a Brooklyn team nobody will be thinking about until they swing for a star again. I think DLO is at peace with where he is at.
He had a better experience on the Nets than anywhere else anyway so the lakers did him a favor with that trade if we being honest way.
What was annoying was watching him disappear in the playoffs. Zero points from a PG in the modern NBA is hard to accomplish.
Ben Simmons paved the way
It must be a certain type of pressure being a point guard and playing with LeBron as well
He also played with Curry and was ass on the Warriors.
He averaged his career high of 23 PPG that season and he had a 50 point game.
That entire team was ass though we went like 15-50 lmao. Klay missed the whole season and Steph missed like 99% of it. He played like 5 games out of 65.
More like the team was ass
He got maybe 2 months with Curry.
He didn’t deserve any favors with the way he played for thr Lakers. Straight up
Winning basketball isn’t for everyone. Some guys just wanna get points, play low expectations hoops, and have fun… I remember Terrence Ross was basically saying this when he retired
Also having millions in the bank makes a difference lol
Next time just say his name… Kyle Kuzma lol
That’s NBA champion Kyle Kuzma
To each their own. Some want to be the goat, some just like the 9-5 and enjoy life.
True in basketball and in life.
Not talked about enough, not everyone wants to win, its just a job at the end of the day.
It’s not talked about because they’re literally getting paid to win lol
Lol good for you Dlo I wish you nothing but happiness and low stress on the Nets
Tbh happiness and low stress sounds a lot better than regressing as a bench player for a team that isn’t actually a contender but wants to pretend they’re a contender
Fair enough. Not everyone is competitive I guess.
Doesn’t really have to do with competitiveness. His role became much more enjoyable and his chances at a ring didn’t change
Lakers at +4000
Nets at +100000
You have the same odds as us lol
Yeah I feel incredibly comfortable that both of those teams are not going to win
The point is, neither Lakers or Nets are winning it thus year, nets are fine with it but Lakers aren’t
Betting odds are not equivalent to actual odds lol.
Going from a playoff team to a tanking team his chances technically did change, they reduced.
Every playoff team by the very nature of being in the playoffs has a greater than 0 chance at winning the championship, whereas a tanking team has a literally 0% chance at doing so.
Just clarifying.
I guess his point was, simple put: neither the lakers or nets are winning the title, and DLO didn’t care to win either way.
So with that knowledge, DLO can peacefully be garbage with a hot game or two and not win a chip, than do the same thing in LA, get crucified by 285839394939 lakers fans and media…and still not win the chip lol.
I like that DLO is all caps every time, reminds me of when you had to type your name in for those Pokémon games on Gameboy
In June, when the Lakers have long been eliminated and the season is winding down, we’ll all look back fondly on your clarification here
I would hope you have something to better do during the summer than look back on a random Reddit response you got in January.
It has everything to do with competitiveness, his chances at winning games is a lot lower. He clearly would rather have fun and get his instead of sacrifice and put in work to try and win basketball games.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, he’s making millions to play a game he loves, he’s won enough.
What exactly does “put in work to try and win basketball games” entail?
Moving the ball, sacrificing shot attempts to other players, and playing defense. Understanding the game script and playing inside your role, playing smart situational basketball. Playing inside of yourself and your game for the betterment of the team.
DLo has shown about 0% of that over his career.
I can’t tell if you’re joking or not but it’s all good man. I’m just happy he’s happy.
Ok
You cut deep with this one.
Playing good defense, making smart plays and going to the western conference finals isn’t regressing lmao. Playing on a trash teams like the nets and chucking up shots is tho
Getting knocked for trying to win while being a fan of whatever the Nets are doing is wild.
There is so much shade in your last three words 💀
Bro really said ‘I hate doing what my coach wants me to’ 😂😂😂
D’Lo did try to fit into whatever JJ redick asked of him though
Props to him for that - he got benched, saw his minutes reduce to ~20 a game, his shot attempts evaporate, all in a contract year, and he didn’t make any noise or complain at all about JJ when he was in LA (or since)
“I don’t ever want to play competitively ever again”
Sounds about Dlo lol
In all seriousness, I love that he loves his role. He’s not upset to be on a team that’s tanking. He just wants to play basketball.
Look alot of people are just like that, I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my team but I can’t hate him for it. On the contrary this is pretty hilarious.
Did the Lakers force him to pay money to play basketball? I assume so, and the Nets let the players play for free, according to his comments
This may be dumb, but What’s he mean by “free basketball”?
Getting to play how he wants rather than being restricted into a specific role
This is his jab at JJ reddick for benching him and more or less elevating AR at the same time.
Evidence.
Pre-benching. Scheme/minutes/rotation all favored AR over DLO. I am pretty sure, JJ asked DLO to “screen” more for the team and let AR get more touches. Check stats for first 8 games. Touches/minutes/shots flipped, AR got more than DLO. Same roster minus Prince/Dinwiddle (which you were replacing only 15 points in production)
Lebron and AR out a few games. DLO remained benched.
JJ took gave AR+AD the chunk of the minutes. Almost double the minutes. DLO a classic PNR player was literally took away a play that regularly scored 2-3 buckets a game for him.
It’s fucking hilarious the DLO haters and Lakers brigade trying to sell you that DLO didn’t want to shrink away from the spotlight. He literally was on fire for 4 months to end the 23-24 season. And they trying to tell you that DLO was the reason they lost to DEN last season because an 0-fer that was partially due to Darvin benching him the rest of the 2nd half. DINGDING, if you look back at that series, literally RUI had a worst series and AR was bad for the first 2 games.
Yeah, I think his comment was more about JJ too. Not only was his role reduced, but JJ literally kept the shortest leash on him, pulling him for long stretches if he made a single mistake on defense or missed a shot.
Bro dlo has the worse shot selection in the league outside Poole. He shoots nothing but heat checks.
I think every DLo shot looks bad because of how nonchalant his body language is. His shot selection wouldn’t look bad if it were anyone else taking them.
Again that’s why you gotta accept you’re a role player. You can’t have random episodes of heat checks out of nowhere. Being too unpredictable is not a winning role for Dlo
It’s nice to see someone that actually watched Lakers games give their opinion rather than the people that just gobble up the low hanging fruit no matter how wrong it is
You’re absolutely right. He was a good fit for us last year but with the way JJ wants to play it really didn’t make sense to keep him. I was never a D’Lo hater, but there was a point during this season where I knew we didn’t need him.
I hope he balls out for the Nets
can do whatever the fuq he wants on a possession as a star player, and isn’t boxed into a role where he is scolded/shamed/benched for playing outside of a specified role on the team as a role player.
The green light AR is currently given.
He wasn’t benched for playing outside his role he was benched for being ass at everything they need him to do the most- make 3s and play defense
He got plenty of minutes with LeBron playing off ball or on the bench he was still ass lol
Bron playing the point even if D’Lo is the PG
Having no expectations of success lol. They’re tanking
Getting to play pickup basketball basically instead of serious basketball where you need to play defense and have specific roles on offense
I will never take shot chucking for granted again. I am privileged enough to not give a shite on defense either
The most D’Angelo Russell quote I’ve ever heard.
A starting lineup with DLo, Kuzma, Jordan Poole, Ben Simmons, and Ayton would be a punkass team for the ages.
Thats the coment I would expect from this guy. A certified tank commander and a looser
🫡 The True Tank Commander
Bro went full tank commander lmao
Drive the tank with no expectations and more time to podcast. Must be nice tbh
Damn this is wack coming from a professional. Just wants to play shit ball I guess? Ok
Tbh, I get it.
Reality is, if you’re not a top 100 or so player in the nba, odds are you will be forgotten. If you’re just another guy, then you might as well ring chase when you’re older cause there’s just not much of a legacy to be built.
Work that 9 to 5, entertain fans and get your money.legacy don’t mean shit it you ain’t lebron james.
Love that for you cause I also hated seeing you play “paid basketball”
Well no contending team will want him after saying that. But a decent chunk of the players are just happy to make It and just hoop. Fulfilled there life long goal can’t hate on it.
what role was he boxed into as a Laker? The lakers needed him to score efficiently, play defense and play consistently. He couldn’t.
That defense is free too, take it.
Be as free as you want and help us get a top 3-5 pick
The Lakers were holding him back! /s?
Like a signal to any team wanting to win that he’s not it
Alot of D’Lo hate but playing with Lebron can be tough. You’re forced into a specific role. He took the Nets to the playoffs before as an All-Star, maybe let’s see what he can do?
Dude enjoys losing
all man wants is no accountability.
Tbh that quote feels like having no hunger
It isn’t always what it seems, but at the very least that probably isn’t something you should say to the media
I kinda respect it ngl
I’ve always rooted for D’Lo but he is not a serious basketball player. This is him confirming that. He has no burst to the basket, poor defense, questionable shot selections, and inconsistent shot making.
I read this as him talking about playing on a LeBron team. He wouldn’t be the first to say something like that.
Imagine getting paid millions just to kinda chill out and do your own thing. No end goal, no direction, just hanging out shooting hoops. And getting paid millions. Sounds good to me.
Half the teams are good and half the teams are bad. Someone’s gotta play for the bad teams
playing on a tanking team is probably fun af
DLO’s “free basketball” heightened performance now that he’s been given more “freedom” on the Nets: same amount of field goal attempts, averaging less than one more point a game. Bro acting like he was being held back by the Lakers, but he’s doing the same shit and still mid
It’s funny how every loser who gets traded off the Lakers always makes comments after like a boyfriend who was dumped
I’m not a fan of DLo, but he sounds here like another Lakers survivor
Whenever r/nba shits on a player I look up their contract or career earnings. D’Lo is making over 18 million this year and has earned 175 million over a 9 year career. He’s obviously doing something VERY right.
Dude coming from a situation where he has to play team basketball and sacrifice his PT, shot selection and having to playing defense to lots of PT, unlimited shots, and having to play no defense should be “fun” for the rest of the season. Dude is gonna be a journeyman if he doesn’t get it.
Im so glad he’s off my team and I don’t have to pretend he’s a good player anymore
Magic was right about him after all
This dude would absolutely love Washington with Poole and Kuzma
Good basketball, at the absolute highest levels if extremely tedious.
It should feel difficult.
Like anything in life.
This is so lame and embarrassing
Bro is just a chucker who doesn’t defend. And expects to be treated like a star. Fuck outta here. Let’s see who offers him a minimum contract this summer
It’s even better than free basketball. They’re paying him!
Fire away, Dlo. We’re the worst offense in the league after trading Schroder and DFS
Thats when you have 0 expectations.
Sounds like the Lakers were holding him back
Sounds like D’Lo found his happy place in a low-pressure environment where he can just hoop. At this stage, why not embrace the tank and get those stat lines up?
Refound his joy. Glad to read