D’Angelo Russell is officially a member of the Dallas Mavericks, having joined the team on a two-year deal in the early days of Free Agency this past June. Coming off a relatively down year where he split time between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, Russell is poised to get back to form when he takes the court with the Mavericks in a few weeks.
Russell will begin the season as the starting point guard, with his hold on the job likely to go unchallenged until Kyrie Irving returns from injury. Even the most optimistic trajectory for that eventuality gives DLo a solid three month window to run the show in Big D. While there may be some questions about Russell’s efficacy if you glance at his stat line from last year, there are reasons to believe he will be at his best when the regular season tips off. Namely, Dallas believes they are in “win now” mode, which is a significant difference from the Brooklyn team Russell played for to finish last season. He is also in a contract year for all intents and purposes, having a player option in the second year of his deal; he has every incentive to outperform his contract, opt out in year two and then cash in a bigger deal.
His new teammates have his back as well. At the time of his signing, it was reported that he had the ringing endorsement of multiple players, including Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson. It has now come to light that Russell is as excited to play with his new teammates as they are to play with him. DLo recently featured on The Backyard Pod and the folks at MFFL Nation excerpted a portion of his visit that shows just how amped he is to show what he can bring (note: explicit language features in the embedded video).
Of particular note is Russell’s strong desire to team up with Klay Thompson. The two are former teammates from their time in Golden State but never actually shared the court due to Thompson being injured. That is all just weeks away from changing.
DLo is expecting to feed Thompson a steady diet in what he expects to be a perfect pairing. Recounting pick-up games the two have played during the offseason, Russell describes scenarios where he is finding Thompson open before Thompson even realizes it himself! When Thompson arrived in Dallas, the fanbase largely expected him to get the best looks of his career by way of Luka Doncic’s passing prowess. We previously analyzed that and did not find any preponderance of evidence that Thompson benefited greatly. Is it therefore reasonable to expect Thompson will benefit from Russell’s orchestrating skills? DLo seems to think so.
If he is correct and the two players are working out the kinks prior to even reporting to training camp, it bodes well for Dallas. While Russell’s comments have shades of “Monta Ellis have it all” they should nonetheless be enough to get Mavs fans excited to wash away the stains of last season and get ready for what is to come, whatever it may be. If nothing else, fans can at least appreciate their starting point guard being amped for what the team can achieve.
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