The L.A. Lakers ensured roster continuity within their squad by retaining their starting point-guard D’Angelo Russell during 2023 free-agency. However, the Lakers may explore the possibility of seeing whether an ‘attractive offer’ comes in for the All-Star as the February trade deadline approaches, according to NBA writer Mark Medina.

NBA news – L.A. Lakers

Early on in the NBA off-season, Jovan Buha of The Athletic insisted that the success of the L.A. Lakers organization as a whole largely depended on the moves they made in the off-season, particularly at the point-guard position. The report went on to suggest that the L.A. outfit have struggled with securing depth in the point-guard position for four consecutive seasons and were desperately looking for a solution.

Now it appears they have succeeded in doing just that. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers chose to re-sign D’Angelo Russell to a two-year, $37 million deal in what is his second stint with the team after being drafted at No. 2 overall back in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Retaining Russell was a small part of Lakers GM, Rob Pelinka’s plan to prioritize roster ‘continuity’ by keeping the majority of their core together that went on a 17-9 stretch toward the back-end of the regular season despite injuries to both franchise stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis which kept them out of the line-up for a majority of that run.

According to the Associated Press of the NBA, the 2022-23 Lakers were only the fourth team since 1981 to start with a 2-10 record or worse, and finish above .500. They completed their late-season turnaround finishing with a winning-record of 43-39.

By re-signing Russell, but seeing the departure of back-up PG Dennis Schroeder, the Purple and Gold attempted to rectify their positional needs by picking up starting point-guard during Miami Heat’s NBA Finals run, Gabe Vincent, on a three-year, $33 million free-agent deal, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. As a result, the Lakers have gone from positional instability at the point-guard spot to one which now poses a lot of strength, with debates now beginning to form over who will have the starting role on the opening night of the 2023-24 regular season.

Does Mark Medina have an update on Russell’s future?

Medina thinkins that the Lakers believe that Russell can overcome his shooting inconsistencies that were prevalent last season, particularly throughout the Purple and Gold’s deep playoff run. However, there is still the possibility of Russell being traded closer to the deadline.

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, the journalist said...

“The Lakers have found they are much better with maintaining continuity and depth around LeBron James than continuously making changes. Maybe the Lakers can find an attractive offer leading into the trade deadline for D’Angelo Russell, especially if he doesn’t play consistently. But the Lakers are bullish he can mitigate last season’s shooting woes and still remain an important reason for the team’s offensive efficiency.”

How did Russell perform last season?

Despite Russell having shown glimpses of the player that earned him the recognition of becoming an All-Star in this league back in 2019, there have been question marks over his consistency as a scorer.

Coming back over to the Lakers at the trade deadline from the Minnesota Timberwolves, D’Lo attempted to build chemistry with James and Davis from the outset.

According to Kyle Goon of The Baltimore Banner, quite soon after the 27-year-old’s arrival back in L.A, Russell along with James and Davis were ‘drawing up plays on the whiteboard’, with thoughts of the future when all three of them were healthy and playing together.

By the end of the season, though, Russell averaged 17.8 points, 5.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds, shooting 42.6% from the field and 36.2% from the three-point line in 71 games split between the Wolves and the Lakers, per Statmuse, but it was his numbers throughout the playoffs which caused some concern.

During the Lakers’ deep post-season run all the way to the Western Conference finals, the former No. 2 overall pick suffered a huge decline in his shooting performances, averaging only 13.3 points despite scoring with the exact same field-goal percentage of 42.6%, but a considerable decrease of only 31.0% from beyond-the-arc.

According to ESPN, Russell connected on less that 50% of his field goals in his first 13 career playoff games which was the longest run of inefficiency since DeMar DeRozan did it in 25 post-season games as a then-member of the Toronto Raptors during 2014-16.

As a result, it left many questioning whether the Ohio State alum had a future in L.A. after all.

Despite signing a new deal with the Lakers, those questions still remain largely unanswered, but it is expected that the LakeShow will stick with D’Angelo Russell at least to start the season.

However, it cannot be entirely ruled out that the 27-year-old could find himself on another NBA team before the conclusion of the 2023-24 season if he can’t improve upon his shooting consistency on the court.