Russell’s piece of the puzzle
Warriors design plays and lineups to maximize the impact of their new AllStar guard
While he recovered from knee surgery two years ago, D’Angelo Russell tried to make sense of what his doctor was telling him: The injury was rooted in exhaustion.
Russell, by working out two or three times a day the previous summer to shed body fat and move past a tumultuous stint with the Lakers, had worn out his balky left knee. That forced him to undergo an arthroscopic procedure that sidelined him twoplus months. Since then, he has made selfpreservation a priority.
That’s part of the reason Russell, 23, was pleased when a complex signandtrade brought him to the Warriors in July. After shouldering the NBA’s sixthhighest usage rate last season in Brooklyn’s isolationheavy system, he is poised to play off the ball more often as Stephen Curry’s backcourt partner.
Head coach Steve Kerr plans to run more pickandroll plays than he has in the past, but the onus will be on Russell to adapt to the Warriors’ motion offense. His catchandshoot ability, a secondary facet of his playing style with the Nets, must become a staple.
“I feel like iso, you play harder,” Russell said this week. “I try
to limit my iso plays. I can pull them out of the bag here and there. As much as I can limit it and go a different route, making plays, I think that’s still the route I want to go.”
Such comments might surprise those who watched Russell ride the pickandroll to his first AllStar appearance last season. But his reliance on isolation plays was a product of Brooklyn’s dearth of playmakers, not his own desire to force the action.
Russell’s pickandroll prowess propelled Brooklyn to its first postseason berth in four years. Only Kemba Walker, with Charlotte, notched more possessions than Russell last season as a pickandroll ball handler, and only Walker and Portland’s Damian Lillard scored more points in the pickandroll.
Russell ran pickandroll on 49.9% of his possessions, which ranked fifth in the league. His 920 pickandrolls were only 75 fewer than the entire Warriors offense. Curry, who might be the NBA’s most daunting pickandroll player, had the ball in his hands 25% less often than Russell’s 6.4 minutes per game.
Golden State led the league with 0.99 points per pickandroll possession, but it ran the fewest pickandrolls (only 10.8% of the time). Kerr, with AllStar forward Kevin Durant on the roster, had the luxury of hiding his biggest tactical advantage much of the regular season, only to unleash it during highstakes moments.
After the Warriors entered halftime of Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals tied with Houston, Curry feasted on a slew of high pickandrolls with Draymond Green, scoring 33 points in the second half to power Golden State to a seriesclinching win. But even with Durant gone, Kerr would prefer not to deviate too far from his motion principles.
That’s fine with Russell. Though his game subsisted on the pickandroll with Brooklyn, he showed he can lead an attack that mimics the Warriors’ rapid tempo and dependence on the 3pointer. The Nets finished last season 11th in pace and fifth in 3pointers made.
Russell should have more room to operate with the Warriors than he had in Brooklyn. He made 39.4% of his catchandshoot 3pointers last season, a number that could spike alongside Curry, Green and, eventually, Klay Thompson.
“It’s just make the reads and go,” Curry said. “For the most part, don’t stop moving and good things will happen.”
But Kerr has acknowledged that, as the Warriors try to navigate this postDurant era, they’ll need to call more set plays than they’re accustomed to.
Thanks to perhaps the most loaded roster in NBA history, Golden State could keep opposing defenses off balance in recent years by spreading the floor, making the extra pass and getting big shots from any of its five players on the court. Now, with fewer proven scorers, the Warriors might need to become more predictable.
As Thompson recovers from a torn ACL expected to sideline him until at least late February, Kerr will have little choice but to rely on the oneonone brilliance of Curry and Russell for stretches. A minutes split is probably the best option. In 201718, when the Rockets won a leaguebest 65 games and boasted the toprated offense, their two best players — Chris Paul and James Harden — logged just 970 minutes together.
Much as Paul did for Houston that season, Russell might need to bolster a thin second unit at times.
Last season, the Warriors outscored opponents by a teambest 13.7 net rating with Curry on the floor, a far cry from the minus4.3 they posted without him. With Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Quinn Cook gone, Golden State will try to mine contributions from a young supporting cast including rookies Jordan Poole and Eric Paschall, Glenn Robinson III, Jacob Evans and Omari Spellman.
Russell, who is used to maximizing unheralded lineups, will anchor the second unit with forays to the rim, pickandrolls and pullup jumpers. Given the financial constraints the Warriors faced in the wake of Durant’s departure, allowing Russell to probe defenses for openings as Curry and Green sit is a palatable route.
“The main thing is he just has to get his legs underneath him,” Kerr said. “He’s a wonderful passer, and I think he’s going to make a huge impact on our team, handling the ball, distributing, and making shots.”
Russell, for his part, won’t complain if he must run more pickandrolls this season than he expected. Two years after he appeared headed for the dreaded “bust” label with the Lakers, Russell is on a fouryear, $117 million deal with a winning franchise.
Asked whether he’d like to play deep into his 30s, Russell said, “For sure. Especially with the checks they’re handing out, I want to play as long as I can.”