Subscribe
Follow Us
The Brooklyn Nets will be in action against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, meaning we will get to see breakout guard D'Angelo Russell against the established All-Star in Damian Lillard.
Lillard has turned into a sort of comparison for Russell, as Russell has shown flashes of Lillard's smooth scoring ability and can have moments where he catches fire and takes over a game offensively.
So, that begs the question: will Russell ever reach Lillard's level?
Let's start with understanding the fact that Lillard is a four-time All-Star and was named an All-Star as soon as his second season in the league and had already earned the honor twice by year three, so Russell is quite a bit behind Lillard on the curve.
Russell is currently in his fourth season and just made his first All-Star team, and only did so because of an injury to Victor Oladipo. Prior to this season, he was viewed as a colossal bust by many, as his first two NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers were so disappointing that the Lakers decided to dump him to the Nets during the summer of 2017.
Of course, Los Angeles was also trying to clear the way for Lonzo Ball at the time, but the fact that Magic Johnson was so quick to give up on Russell and receive hardly anything in return was a telling sign of just how low Russell's value was.
Now, two years later, Russell is averaging 20.7 points per game and has Brooklyn on the cusp of a surprising playoff appearance.
But just how good of a season is D. Lo really having?
Well, we have now reached a point in NBA circles where you no longer just look at points, rebounds, and assists to determine how good a player is. These days, efficiency matters, as does versatility, particularly defensively.
While Russell is averaging over 20 points a night, he is not really doing it all that efficiently, shooting 43.2 percent from the floor, 36.6 percent from three-point range and 79.3 percent from the free-throw line. That translates into a very average true-shooting percentage of 53 percent and an equally mediocre effective field-goal percentage of 50.9 percent.
These are not far above his career averages, which may indicate that Russell's bump in production is mainly a result of his increase in shot attempts as he is taking 18.4 shots per game this season, by far a career high (his career average is 14.5 field-goal attempts a night).
Also, Russell has not shown a tendency to get to the charity stripe, as he is recording just 2.5 free-throw attempts per game, which is actually a notch below his lifetime average of 2.6. While the difference is negligible, it demonstrates that Russell has not improved at all in this category, as he is yet to average three free-throw attempts per game in any one individual season.
Lillard, on the other hand, had these gifts right from the get-go.
The Blazers star achieved a true-shooting percentage of 56.8 percent and an effective field-goal percentage of 50.8 percent in his second season and also got to the free-throw line at a consistent rate, taking 5.2 foul shots a night and making 87.1 percent of them.
By his fourth season, which is where Russell is at the present time, Lillard was getting to the line 6.2 times a game and making 89.2 percent of those free-throw attempts.
This season, Lillard boasts a true-shooting percentage of 59.7 percent and an effective field-goal percentage of 53.1 percent. He is also taking 6.6 free throws per game and is converting on 91 percent of them.
It's hard to see Russell ever achieving those numbers, as he is four years into his NBA career and is yet to really improve upon his shot selection and, again, is not giving us any reason to believe that he will ever become a guy who can consistently get to the foul line.
An even more damning aspect of Russell's game is his net rating, which comes in at minus-0.5 this season. What is Lillard's, you ask? A ridiculous plus-15.3, which is beyond elite status.
We can't use the “well it's only a one-year sample size” excuse for Russell, either, as he has never had a positive net rating in any one of his four seasons in the NBA.
The thing with Russell is that he has to be an elite offensive player in order to be worth a max deal, as he is a horrific defender. We know that defense isn't exactly Lillard's strength, but he makes up for it with terrific efficiency and the ability to clearly lead an offense.
I know Nets fans are excited about Russell and think they may have their star of the future moving forward, but realistically, Russell hasn't gotten to a level where we can say that he is going to be a franchise cornerstone.
From Stephen Curry to Kyrie Irving to Kemba Walker to Chris Paul to Lillard, there are a lot of outstanding point guards in the league. It's difficult to envision Russell ever being among them.
