D’Angelo Russell was benched for ‘trying to take over the game’
The last few days haven’t been good to Byron Scott. The last few years haven’t, either, but in this business you mainly end up discussing the latest thing that wasn’t all that great.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
In the hours following what might be the most believable cry of hacking in sports figure/social media history, Scott dug in to lead his Lakers against the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs prevailed as Kobe Bryant watched from the sidelines, mindful of his sore shoulder and the home court setting that wouldn’t leave him disappointing faraway fans on his farewell tour.
The game also saw Laker rookie D’Angelo Russell struggle through yet another rough shooting night, as the 19-year old missed eight of 12 shots in the loss. Russell sat for the game’s final two and a half minutes, as Scott went with a three-guard lineup featuring D’Angelo’s replacement in Nick Young, alongside Jordan Clarkson and Lou Williams.
Following the loss, Scott offered up a very Byron Scott-like quote in discussing Russell’s absence.
“I saw the last couple minutes that he was in that he was really trying to take over the game, and that’s not him yet,” Scott said. “I want the ball to move a little bit. I thought it stuck with him. He tried to make the big shots and things like that. I understand that, but to me, that’s not him right now.”
[…]
“I love the fact that he has confidence,” Scott said. “When it gets to the point where it’s cockiness, then we’ve got a problem.”
He wasn’t hacked.
At this point, it is rather difficult to stew over Byron Scott’s observations without treating his purview like the proverbial fish in a barrel. With that in place, there isn’t anything explicitly wrong, as if something could be so clearly black and white when it comes to sports, with Scott’s comments.
D’Angelo Russell shot five times in his first 9 1/2 minutes of work in the fourth quarter on Tuesday, making two shots. He missed two three-pointers and split two free throws while adding a steal alongside no assists. The Lakers were -3 in the quarter with him out there, eventually going on to be outscored 15-12 by Dallas in the final frame in what was a rough game to watch save for a pair of fantastic Kobe-bred highlights.
The Lakers probably had a better shot to win the game while featuring veterans Young, Williams, and Clarkson – however mercurial and young they might be. Russell, meanwhile, has not played like a superstar-in-waiting in 27 minutes per game with Los Angeles, despite dropping 12.2 points and 3.3 assists in limited minutes. He shoots 41 percent overall and takes far too many three-pointers for someone that makes less than a third of them.
He’s supposed to want to take over games, though. He’s supposed to take over games, even if it results in a litany of airballs. Much in the same way that Kobe Bryant or, I don’t know, Byron Scott attempted to on Laker teams that were filled with much more productive veterans.
Part of the job of the head coach is to live with such things. Sometimes the point isn’t to win battles, but the war; and these 9-38 Lakers have already lost the battle that is the 2015-16 NBA season. For Scott to continue to defer to intangible pablum as the reason why his 19-year old failed at rescuing his terrible offense for a series of plays in what turned out to be a deciding 12-point quarter should be infuriating to Laker fans.
We know these Lakers weren’t designed to win, that was obvious years ago, but at some point this small-yet-billion-buck organization has to come to terms with the hole it might be digging itself. At times, it appears as if the 19-year old might be the smartest guy in the room:
D’Angelo Russell on Byron benching him for trying to take over the game: “I don’t know if he would’ve said that if I was making those shots”
— Michael Pina (@MichaelVPina) January 27, 2016
That’s a kid, mind you, pointing out that his 50-something head coach might be thinking one play at a time. In a bad way.
Again, D’Angelo Russell might not turn out to be an All-Star, or the next Laker legend. That’s not for Byron Scott to decide, though, in 2016. Good coaches provide an atmosphere in which lacking players can flourish and create. Good coaches allow for someone who is interested in the game, smitten with competition, and happy to lead to sometimes, take over when the situation doesn’t call for it.
Apparently we just called Del Harris, who coached both Byron Scott and Kobe Bryant in 1996-97, a “good coach.”
Kids gotta take their licks. The Lakers stand to benefit from losing games this season, but more important than a saved draft pick is the idea that the team’s young core develops something that is going to outstretch both the Kobe and Byron Scott eras.
On any other team, the idea of a continued “Byron Scott era” would be a laughable proposition. With these Lakers, however, you don’t know how far this hubris will take them. This franchise loves to dig in.
– – – – – – –
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
