Could D'Angelo Russell Be Destined for Unexpected Slide During 2015 NBA Draft?
Thanks to his successful freshman season for the Ohio State Buckeyes, D'Angelo Russell experienced a rise up the NBA prospect rankings that can only be described as meteoric.
Coming into the year, he didn't even register on DraftExpress.com's mock draft radar, finishing outside of the second round until November came around. When he was leaving high school, he was a 5-star recruit, per Rivals, but he seemed destined to be a great college player who stayed for a few years, not a one-and-done with an elite NBA future.
Once he started playing in Columbus, he quickly jumped all the way up into the back end of the lottery and eventually peaked at No. 2 during early February. Since the Jan. 14 edition of the site's mocks, he's been in the top four each and every time.
Now, he stands at No. 2 on Jonathan Wasserman's big board for Bleacher Report, but is he even going to go in the top four during the actual 2015 NBA draft on June 25?
Somehow, that's not a guarantee. Russell is an incredibly talented combo guard with the ability to drain shots from everywhere and keep his teammates involved, but he seems to be viewed as a backup option by virtually every top team. And he's probably not sure why.
"I definitely believe I'm the best player in the NBA draft, based on my hunger," Russell explained to USA Today's Scott Gleeson. "I just feel like what I bring to the game, you don't see a lot of it at my age. Things that you don't teach—high IQ, leadership skills, passing ability—I have those intangibles."
Thus far, intangibles don't seem to be enough. Though none of the first four teams on the board would mind having him, he doesn't seem to serve as a priority.
Constantly Linked to the Top Teams
Even though Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor have emerged as the top two prospects in this draft class, essentially operating on a tier of their own, the Minnesota Timberwolves refuse to limit themselves to selecting a member of that duo with the No. 1 pick. Head coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders won't write off a certain guard from Ohio State.
Per ESPN.com's Chad Ford, the organization pushed for a workout with Russell and can't write him off:
And this is exactly what the Wolves should be doing. They may as well figure out all of their options, even if they're unlikely.
Towns is quite clearly the best fit for their organization, given his ability to help fix the rim-protecting woes that have plagued the defense and space out the court with his perimeter shooting. But if the Wolves aren't entirely sold that he'll develop into an MVP candidate, they could certainly justify going in another direction, especially if Nikola Pekovic is going to be healthy and back in the lineup.
Sure, that seems unlikely. But the Wolves presumably know more about the big man's health than we do, and center isn't a glaring weakness when he's actually on the floor.
The same is true of Ricky Rubio at the point, and it's even more true after Zach LaVine showed off his skills during the stretch run. However, if Russell is brought aboard, Rubio becomes a highly appealing trade chip, and it would be much easier for Minnesota to bring back a valuable return when shopping him rather than the Montenegrin center.
Don't get me wrong. Towns is still the right pick, and Okafor should be viewed as the backup plan. But it wouldn't be nonsensical for the Wolves to make Russell the surprise No. 1, and they're doing their due diligence.
Still, it wouldn't be as strong a pick as the Los Angeles Lakers taking him with the second selection of the night's proceedings.
While the Lake Show could certainly draft whichever center the Wolves don't snatch off the boards, playing to their history of dominant big men, they already have Julius Randle on the roster. When healthy, he should be a convincing commodity on the blocks. If Towns is the man taken by Minnesota, Okafor might be a bit redundant and cause clogged lanes that would hold back the driving ability of Los Angeles' smaller players.
Of course, that's a worst-case scenario. The 19-year-old Okafor is inevitably going to be a 20/10 threat who commands double teams in the post, and it's tough to complain about boasting that type of player on the roster.
But you can see why the Lakers might be looking to go down a non-conventional route, especially given the extent to which the league is currently dominated by marquee guards. Lest we forget, each of the four teams that made the conference finals had at least one backcourt member participate in the All-Star festivities, and the eventual champions went 2-for-2. Plus, they literally benched their starting center during portions of the Finals.
"But the NBA's recent shift to a space-and-pace mind-set—thank you, Golden State—is partly why the Lakers are strongly considering Ohio State point guard D'Angelo Russell after he shot extremely well during a workout for the team last weekend," the Los Angeles Times' Mike Bresnahan posits.
Additionally, Russell wants to be in L.A.
"Wherever he goes, Russell promises, they'll get that no-look pass, that tenacity, but the Lakers are still the Lakers," Adrian Wojnarowski writes for Yahoo Sports. "D'Angelo Russell is making his case for No. 2, for the chance to take the ball, the stage and basketball's biggest burden. Yes, D'Angelo Russell wants it all."
Naturally, it's not going to be that simple, even if there seems to be mutual interest between the player and the team. Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie reportedly wants to trade up to No. 2 in order to ensure he can get his hands on the former Buckeye, per Ken Berger of CBS Sports.
It's easy to see how that one makes sense.
Not only do the Sixers have a wealth of draft picks they can use to move up in the proceedings without emptying their coffers, but they desperately need a point guard after trading away Michael Carter-Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Joel Embiid setback makes selecting one of the two elite centers much more palatable, and going for a potential star on the wings is feasible, but this team isn't going to be successful—even in the weak Eastern Conference—until it has the right player running the show.
Rounding things out in the top four are the New York Knicks, who would surely love to add a franchise point guard into the mix, even if it would take some adjustments to get him comfortable in the triangle offense.
"I don't look at him as a young kid who could take a couple years," Bobby Marks, a former NBA executive, said of Russell, per the New York Post's Marc Berman. "Put him on the court right now and let him play. If he fell to 4, you take him, unplug your phone and call it a night."
And that's exactly what the Knicks might do if this talented guard is available. Except just like the other three teams drafting at the front of the pack, they might not.
Always (At Least) the Second Fiddle
Russell may be a sensible pick for the Wolves, Lakers, Sixers and Knicks, but does that actually mean he's going to be playing for any of them? If none end up telling NBA commissioner Adam Silver to call out his name on June 25, one of the draft's elite talents could slip past the Orlando Magic at No. 5 (no need to take another guard with Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton on the roster) and end up playing for the Sacramento Kings.
Despite their reported interest in Russell, the Wolves might just be doing their best to help smokescreen season validate its name. Playing up the ability to trade Rubio for more than Pekovic would yield is akin to getting cute, and that's not what you want to do when drafting at No. 1.
This isn't 2013. There's no chance of a surprise selection (Anthony Bennett) during a year in which no one player truly stands out above the rest, because the two top centers are so clearly in a league of their own.
Towns is the right pick, and Okafor is the proper second option. It's as simple as that, though drafting the Duke product obviously wouldn't be a huge negative for the franchise that will soon roster each of the last three No. 1 picks.
The Lakers drafting Russell would fall into the "logical" category rather than the "cute" one, but this organization is already linked to five different players. The two centers are obvious, as one is guaranteed to fall into their laps, and we've already covered Russell.
But Emmanuel Mudiay, who has completed two workouts with the Lakers, and Kristaps Porzingis are also potential choices. As Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding reports, the Tinseltown organization has done its homework on the Latvian forward, though drafting him is still a bit unlikely:
"They've been over to Spain to see Porzingis play with Sevilla. [GM Mitch] Kupchak, Jim Buss, assistant GM Glenn Carraro, scouting director Jesse Buss, assistant scouting director Ryan West and scout Chaz Osborne were among a considerable Lakers contingent to attend Porzingis' recent workout in Las Vegas. The team followed up immediately with a private workout his agent preferred stay clandestine at the Lakers' home facility last Monday night.
All that said, the Lakers are not expected to take Porzingis.
"
They're not expected to take Russell, either. In fact, here's who four of the NBA media's biggest draftniks have Los Angeles selecting at No. 2 in their latest mocks:
- Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman: Jahlil Okafor
- ESPN.com's Chad Ford: Jahlil Okafor
- DraftExpress.com: Jahlil Okafor
- NBADraft.net: Jahlil Okafor
Now, what about the Sixers?
They're rather easily the safest prediction for Russell's eventual landing spot. They have the most obvious need for a point guard, and by drafting at No. 3, they're not guaranteed to have a shot at the top two prospects, leaving them to choose from the entirety of the second tier.
But this is Philadelphia and Hinkie we're talking about. The Sixers could do virtually anything in the draft. They could reach for another big man. They could take Guillermo Hernangomez and treat him as a draft-and-stash so that he could arrive at the same time as Dario Saric. They could trade the pick to acquire more selections in the lottery.
Almost anything is possible, and they've been heavily linked to a number of other players. Here's Ford:
"We've been hearing both [Emmanuel] Mudiay and [D'Angelo] Russell's name here for months. But over the past few weeks multiple sources around the league suspect that Sam Hinkie may actually be leaning toward Porzingis. He's an odd fit given the Sixers abundance of big men (though news that Joel Embiid's foot hasn't healed may change the fit analysis). But Hinkie has always drafted based on the best player available strategy. He doesn't draft for need. So while the team needs Mudiay or Russell more, if he believes Porzingis is the best player on the board, so be it. Or, as one rival GM opined, this Porzingis intel is all a smoke screen to get Orlando (who loves Porzingis) to trade up to three and give Hinkie another coveted asset. I believe Porzingis's camp would strongly prefer he land in Orlando. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next few weeks.
"
Don't try to predict exactly what Hinkie will do. It's an exercise that will so often lead to frustration during the draft.
Oh, and the Knicks are interested in Porzingis, too. He recently had a private workout with the beleaguered New York organization, and he hasn't exactly minced his words when asked if he'd like to play in Madison Square Garden:
All of this makes for a rather strange situation.
No team is going to deny Russell is one of the most talented prospects in this draft. Some squads may even feel he deserves to be part of that first tier, right alongside both Okafor and Towns. But that doesn't necessarily mean the Ohio State standout is going to be coming off the board early.
Every organization that will pick at the beginning of the draft-day proceedings seems to be considering Russell but thinking of him as a backup plan. And that means if the cards break right—well, break wrong for his wallet—he could end up falling down the draft boards until the Kings rescue him at No. 6.
The 2015 NBA draft figures to feature plenty of intriguing storylines. This one may take the cake, given the drastic dichotomy between the level of talent and the potential place where he could be selected.
All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com.
Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.
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