With Lakers new head coach JJ Redick, the fit of D'Angelo Russell has not found his footing with the Los Angeles losing his starting spot earlier in the year. Russell has been shooting 41% FG this season, career lows since his rookie & sophomore seasons. Russell revived his career in Brooklyn now going back to the Nets where he gained his only All Star for his career. Lakers give up Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second round picks for Nets Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. Both Nets players will bring positive impact to the Lakers however, this trade feels late. This trade could have been pulled off last year or even better a similar deal would have been nice to get the Lakers past the Russell Westbrook era. It's nice to see the Lakers not go for big names but role fitting players. With that being said this trade is not a huge splash that will rock the Lakers boat onto a contending track but more patching a hole in your team as Russell seemed unplayable for the Lakers.
The Brooklyn Nets were also one of the first teams to make a trade this season and many new they had a lot of players to sell trading Dennis Schroder to the Warriors. I believe the real prize on the Nets is Cam Johnson who is a steeper price which is why the Lakers ended up with the Nets 2nd tier role players. Finney-Smith adds a great wing defender who can play a smilier role to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (KCP) when he was on the Lakers. Finney-Smith won't be on the same level as a shooter to KCP but can spread the floor getting more into his offensive bag in Brooklyn. Shake Milton can offer some offensive scoring impact as he's an underrated crafty scorer. Lacking shooting I don't see Milton playing many meaningful minutes as Dalton Knecht and Max Christie are more valuable backup two-guards. It's not the LeBron or Laker way to have this be only trade the team does at like previously stated this trade doesn't shift the lakers ceiling. With DLO gone the Lakers have one of their best trade pieces gone money wise, putting the Lakers truly out of the star market. The Lakers still need more surrounding pieces as they send out a scorer for perimeter defense when this team still lacks shooting.
The Brooklyn Nets really are focused on the three second round picks they acquire from the trade as their team is in the rebuilding stage. Despite the up and down play with the Lakers the exceptions have dropped for DLO but he is expected to have high use with this team. Unlike Jordan Pooles descent from a Finals Warriors team to bottom of the east Wizards Russell has experience not playing on the high status teams and was the main driving force for the Nets before Kevin Durant arrived. Russell also allows the the Nets to work on building a home for Russell or using him in another trade piece as his value should rise in Brooklyn. I believe the Nets organization wants to take the ball out of Cam Thomas hands as Russell will need the ball to operate even more than Schroder. Both guards aren't at an elite status where they should be overstepping each other and with the current outlook of the roster they'll have plenty of shot attempts for the two of them.
The best outcome for the Lakers is that this trade ignites enough spark to defense or even offense to make this team above five hundred when they do their next trade. Like I said before I don't believe this is going to be the only Lakers trade this season making it critical to their success that they are somewhat rolling before acquiring another player so it's not desperation. The play style of Finney-Smith should be extremely easy to plug in its the question of where does that extra offensive come from now.?
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