LOS ANGELES – If there was one player on the Los Angeles Lakers' roster who had seen his name the most in trade rumors, it was D'Angelo Russell. The Lakers had re-acquired Russell in a midseason trade during the 2022-23 season, and it seemed like his name had been in trade chatter ever since. The Lakers finally pulled the trigger on a Russell trade with the Brooklyn Nets, and before the team's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, head coach JJ Redick spoke on what he'll miss the most.
“I loved coaching D'Lo. I spent more time with that guy, and on the phone this summer, on the golf course. . .I told him many times, I want a great outcome for him and I'm hoping he has a great rest of the year,” JJ Redick said. “We're going to miss his playmaking, we're going to miss his ball-handling, we're going to miss his shooting. He's had several games, including recently. . .where we don't win those games without him. With Gabe being out. . .Shake having his first game with us, we're gonna miss a lot from D'Lo.”
In hopes of upgrading their roster, the Lakers trade with the Nets involving D'Angelo Russell saw Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton come back to Los Angeles.
Lakers' guard situation without D'Angelo Russell
Despite what some may have thought of him, Russell was important to the Lakers' guard rotation and had been playing a key role before his departure. Without his presence, the Lakers are relatively thin in the backcourt in the immediate future.
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Gabe Vincent is currently dealing with an oblique injury and was ultimately ruled out for the Lakers' game against the Cavs on Tuesday. With Max Christie starting alongside Austin Reaves, that doesn't leave the Lakers with much depth in the backcourt. One potential option, Jalen H00d-Schifino, is currently sidelined due to a hamstring injury.
There is one intriguing option on the Lakers' bench though, and that's Shake Milton. Milton was acquired as part of the Finney-Smith trade with the Nets, and he was quietly having a solid year in Brooklyn. He was averaging 7.4 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists and was most recently coming off a 16-point, 12-assist game in his last in Nets' jersey.
The Lakers are going to have to find a way to replace the production that Russell brought off the bench, and Redick suggested that both Vincent and Dalton Knecht will have added responsibilities along with a team approach.
“It doesn't necessarily mean we're gonna run more pick and rolls for Gabe, or run more plays for Dalton, it's more about the responsibility those guys have now with getting us organized, getting us into our offense, particularly early offense,” Redick said. “And the trend that we're seeing with our team in general is, we had big shift away from movement and passing and all that stuff, and our offense struggled. The last few games or so, we've gotten back to that. And that's very much a group responsibility than it is just one person shooting the basketball.”
