The Los Angeles Lakers have some promising talent on their roster going into the 2024-25 season. One of their most productive offensive contributors is point guard D'Angelo Russell. Russell once played alongside Stephen Curry on the Golden State Warriors. Curry helped lead Team USA to a gold medal with a deep-range barrage late in the 2024 Olympics, and Russell reacted to a fan who compared him to the Warriors superstar.
Curry scored 24 points in Team USA's gold-medal-sealing 98-87 win over France. He went 8-for-13 on three-pointers, including one impressive rainbow shot over 7-foot-4 center Victor Wembanyama. One fan on X (formerly Twitter) said D'Angelo Russell “gets hot” just like Curry did in the Olympics, prompting this three-word response from the Lakers guard:
“I humbly agree,” Russell responded to the fan in a since-deleted Tweet, provided by Legion Hoops.
Are Russell's shooting abilities comparable to Stephen Curry's? The 6-foot-4 lefty certainly has his share of iconic moments.
Russell scored his career-high 52 points on November 8, 2019, which was ironically when he played for the Warriors. Another time Russell got red-hot was during his glory days with the Brooklyn Nets. In a 25-point comeback against the Sacramento Kings, Russell totaled 44 points, 27 of which he scored in the fourth quarter.
There is no question of Russell's offensive upside, but can he maintain a high level of production going into the 2024-25 season?
Lakers look for Russell to keep ascending in 2024-25
D'Angelo Russell found his way back to LA during the 2022-23 season via a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Russell made an immediate impact in his reunion with the Lakers. He averaged 17.4 points and shot 41.4 percent on three-pointers during the second half of the season. Furthermore, he helped Los Angeles make a deep run and advance to the Western Conference Finals.
Russell comes off another year of stout production in 2023-24. He scored 18.0 points per game and shot a career-high 41.5 percent from deep range. Russell's name was heavily floated in rumors leading up to the 2024 trade deadline. However, LA elected to keep him and expects great things out of him in 2024-25.
The Lakers wanted to advance deep during the 2024 playoffs but were bounced out by the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Russell will join the core of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reeves, and the rest of the team's contributors to make another attempt in 2025.
It will be interesting to how Russell and his team perform ahead of an exciting season.