D'Angelo Russell Rumors

Russell’s rookie season came during Kobe Bryant’s final year with the Lakers. The former No. 2 overall pick thinks things might have worked out differently for him with L.A. had that not been the case: “With the Lakers situation, it probably would have went different if it wasn’t Kobe’s last year and I didn’t go through what I went through,” Russell said, via Ben Stinar of The Big Lead. “It’s L.A., a lot of dudes come and go out of that organization. But I’m just thinking I could have been a guy that’s still there that they would have said ‘Man, I don’t care what we do. He’s a part of the future.’”