Brooklyn Nets: Finding floor, ceiling for D’Angelo Russell

D’Angelo Russell has a lot of potential after 4 up-and-down seasons, but what would the Brooklyn Nets really have if they choose to re-sign the All-Star?

D’Angelo Russell is the Brooklyn Nets‘ All-Star point guard out of the Ohio State. Recently finishing up his fourth season in the league, he’s had an up-and-down career both on and off the court, but he’s finally starting to show the promise of someone drafted with the No. 2 overall pick.

Coming out of college, his court vision and passing were among his most defining qualities being highlighted. Although a bigger guard at the point guard position, he tends to play smaller than he really is. And this is despite getting into tremendous shape over this past offseason.

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But enough back story, let’s get into some comparisons.

Russell’s floor

Although these two players are very different as far as body type and build, I can see DLo being a Kemba Walker-kind of player. I honestly think he’s already around this level of play, even if NBA fans as a whole haven’t recognized this as of yet.

Russell’s ceiling

Again, DLo is slightly bigger than this comparison, but the best possible player DLo can hope to reach is that of Damian Lillard, a.k.a. Dame Dollaz.

The comparison

Shifty guards who aren’t overly athletic and not all that good defensively.

They use dribble moves to get defenders out of position to penetrate. Besides Kemba, there isn’t really the speed to just straight-out blow by defenders. All are good, willing passers, although they are primarily scorers.

These three point guards are in love with the 3 ball and shoot it at a pretty good clip. They make great use of floaters to score off dribble penetration. Shot selection and love for shots further away from the basket will probably keep them from ever having great levels of efficiency –. 42-45 percent from the field and 34-38 percent from 3 should roughly be the range.

How DLo can grow to reach his ceiling

Out of the group, DLo might be the worst finisher at the rim. He needs to get stronger and better at that. That pairs up with the next point, which is the Russell needs to get to the line more. He currently gets to the charity stripe about 2-3 times a game.

His two comps — Walker and Lillard — get there twice as much, if not more so. Also improving at the line would help him greatly. He’s not bad at the line now, converting 78 percent of his shots last season. If he can get that up to 85 percent, that’ll help him greatly.

With their play style and shot selection, these players can be very streaky. Improving these aspects of his game will help Russell better deal with that. Finishing better gives him an out when his shot just isn’t working that day. It’s the same thing with getting to the line.

Hitting free throws and just seeing the ball go through the hoop is an easy remedy for slumps. Little things like these can help him improve his scoring average easily and take him to that next level as he continues to mature.

Of course there are also other things he can improve that are more obvious, such as defense or cutting down on turnovers. But I feel these are slightly more important and definitely more understated.