The Los Angeles Lakers struggled to be at their best at the beginning of the last NBA season. They needed players who were a better fit next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
GM Rob Pelinka found the squad he was looking for, and he was able to make some major moves to help the team compete at the highest level in the second half of the campaign.
One of the most impactful moves was having D’Angelo Russell back on the team. In a recent interview for Patrick Beverley’s podcast, the former lottery pick claimed that he took it upon himself to bring back ‘fun’ to the team.
D’Angelo Russell Wanted To Bring Back Fun To The Lakers
(Via Lakers Daily)
“Honestly, it was fun man cause of the buzz around the team, the Lakers was being talked about, you know what I mean? It was kinda like, like everybody was laughing at the Lakers cause we were losing at the time. So, for me it was kinda like let’s bring this new energy and we came with some guys I already knew, that were happy go lucky guys.
Teams need those energy guys, not energy on the court, but energy like in the locker room, make guys laugh, make guys… you need that offset. With the Vando’s, the Beas’, we came with that energy that we just wanted to make everybody smile again, let’s make this fun again. I don’t know what it was before we left, before we got there.
Not fun? Y’all were getting your ass kicked. It was fun, it was fun though, getting there and bringing that new energy, we started winning and looked up we had a chance to make a run. We had a successful little run, then we had a chance to make it to the playoffs and go further, we did that. You look up man and we’re in the Western Conference Finals and it’s like, ‘let’s keep going, let’s keep going!’ But, obviously we lost to the champions, it is hard to show up and win it all like that in this league. So, I was more than happy with our success.”
see also
Robert Horry explains why the Lakers can"t retire LeBron"s number
At the end of the day, the fans would’ve taken a good game in the playoffs over that ‘fun’ he brought, but there’s no denying that the team chemistry was day and night after that trade, and that also counts.
