D'Angelo Russell has bounced back from what the Los Angeles Lakers considered a slower than desired process, trading him to the Brooklyn Nets after only two seasons in La La Land. Now in the verge of his first-time appearance as an All-Star, the lefty guard feels for what the likes of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram have gone through in the past trade deadline.

“I can’t imagine what they’re trying to block out,” D'Angelo Russell said, according to Leo Sepkowitz of Bleacher Report, later adding: “If [the Lakers] didn’t let me go then, they were gonna let me go now, and I’d be going through what they’re going through. Best thing that happened in my career.”

Russell's first season with the Nets was lined with a rousing start to 2017-18 and a 31-game absence to follow, thanks to an unfortunate injury in the early stretch of his redemption campaign.

Coming back after a season of familiarity with this core group and the coaching staff around him, he's managing to become the player he set out to be when he was first traded.

Russell harbors no hard feelings for the Lakers, though, mature enough to understand the basis of business in the league and what trading him represented for the organization. The Lakers packaged the young Russell with Timofey Mozgov's monster multi-year deal, a contract the Nets had to swallow in order to start fresh themselves after trading franchise centerpiece Brook Lopez.

“It was smart to get off that. Hell yeah,” said Russell. “I understand every piece of business in this league. I just knew that they had Luol Deng and Mozgov and whichever young player had the most stock, they were gonna tag him along with one of those guys.”

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Russell was partly dissed by then new-president Magic Johnson, who said he had the potential, but that he needed a leader in the locker room.

The Ohio State product didn't make much of it at the moment, already showing strides in his maturity.

“I can’t really control that — what they say when I’m gone,” said D'Angelo Russell. “So it’s the past. I’m here now, so it’s irrelevant, honestly.”

The 22-year-old Russell is putting together the best year of his career with averages of 20 points and 6.6 assists, boasting the best shooting numbers of his four seasons in the league.