D'Angelo Russell is a Star...Waiting on His Time to Shine

"Respectfully, my approach is all these people came to see AD, LeBron...but I'm stealing the show", were the last words uttered by Los Angeles Lakers "star" D'Angelo Russell in his interview with ESPN staff writer Dave McMenamin. As a D'Angelo Russell fan, these were exactly the words you want to hear. We all know as Laker fans that the Lakers fan base is extremely toxic and will either make or break a player as history has shown. For example, a player on the Lakers can have 20 good/great games in a row and as soon as they have one bad game, they become the worst player ever and must be traded immediately. Yes, I'm slightly over-exaggerating, but you get the point. For this reason is why D'Angelo Russell deserves all the credit in the world. Majority of the NBA community slandered D-Lo and wanted to trade him for Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, in which I must admit that some of the criticism was in fact warranted. In light of it all, D-Lo arguably played the best basketball of his career and put the trade rumors to rest. Most importantly, he played at this high level while not being allowed to play his natural position. Before you ask what I mean by natural position, I want you everyone to think about it and ask themselves this question. Have any star guards playing alongside LeBron James ever been able to play their actual positions or were they forced to transition to more of a catch-and-shoot type of player due to LeBron being ball dominant. For this reason, is why I say D'Angelo Russell is star..just waiting on his time to shine.

Additionally, in regards to star guards not being able to play their natural positions, D-Lo recently offered an interesting look into his mindset and his approach towards the game post trade deadline. He spoke on how he realized that he needed to do more, get out the backseat, and be himself. He expressed that trying to force the ball into LeBron and AD can cause players to look crazy. You've got to be aggressive around these guys. You know, you compliment these guys by being aggressive - not passing to them. Like, that's easy to guard. You're easy to guard when it's like that." Now, if this isn't proof in the pudding, I don't know what is. This mindset switch has impacted the Lakers as a whole and D'Angelo's aggressive play was the tipping of the iceberg. As a very good guard or "star" guard, you have to say "F*** it" mentally in order to succeed. Think about it, the norm for a player when playing alongside LeBron is to ball watch and watch LeBron drive-and-kick. The key, as D-Lo stated previously, is to be aggressive. There's only been two guards that has been able to play their game and succeed, which consists of Kyrie Irving and most recently D'Angelo Russell. As a basketball fan, you must admit that the Lakers look their absolute best with D-Lo running the offense, playmaking, and putting the players in their correct positions. I can argue that the Lakers look better when LeBron is not in the lineup, players are happier and they don't have to walk on egg shells. As great as LeBron is, arguably the best player of all time, he does struggle to play within the offense and actually score within a system. LeBron is a natural ball stopper, which he's earned given he's the number one scorer in NBA history, but D-Lo knows this is the case, which is why him deciding to say "F*** it" means as much as it does. As mentioned above, I personally feel that D'Angelo Russell is a star. He can playmake with the best of them, he has excellent basketball IQ he can shoot (recently breaking the Lakers franchise record for most 3 pointers made in a season), he's a great teammate, leader, and a good overall basketball player in general. Put some respect on D-Lo's name, he's a star...he's just waiting for his time to shine. Let me know what you think!