Los Angeles Lakers are already looking beyond the upcoming 2024-25 NBA season, and their future moves could involve an important player who was a teammate of Stephen Curry in Golden State Warriors and who will no longer play alongside LeBron James.
Playing on the NBA team with both James and Curry is something only a few can boast about. In this case, the Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly considering to set aside this prominent player next year.
We’re talking about none other than D’Angelo Russell. DLo, who averaged 18.0 points in 76 games during the 2023-24 season, seems to be entering his last campaign as a part of the LA roster.
The 28-year-old guard may not have a solid chance of securing a long-term deal with the team coached by JJ Redick. According to NBA insider Tim Bontemps, the Lakers may not want to keep him for much longer due to his defensive weaknesses.
D’Angelo Russell’s contract situation with Los Angeles Lakers
Russell, who played alongside Stephen Curry during the 2019-20 season with the Golden State Warriors, signed a two-year contract with the Lakers in 2023. This summer, he had the option to seek an exit, but rumors suggest there was not a strong market for his acquisition.
Next winter could see Russell’s second departure from the Lakers, who previously selected him as the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft on June 25, 2015. However, they didn’t trust D’Angelo Russell at that time either and traded him, along with Timofey Mozgov, to the Brooklyn Nets in 2017.
D’Angelo Russell as Stephen Curry teammate in the Golden State Warriors
Russell played 33 games during his time with the Warriors, where he was a teammate of Stephen Curry. It was a brief period under the leadership of head coach Steve Kerr, and after a few months, D’Angelo Russell was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he played for three years. The guard averaged 23.6 points and had a three-point shooting percentage of 37.4%.
Russell’s historic teammates
As if that weren’t enough, Russell is currently a teammate of LeBron James and has played alongside Stephen Curry, but he also shared the roster with the legend Kobe Bryant during his first stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, from 2015 to 2017. D’Angelo Russell and Bryant were on the same squad during Bryant’s final season as a professional player.