The Los Angeles Lakers returned home after an eight-game road trip, and Monday offered the Lakers a chance to wake up in their own beds and practice on their own court.
Jordan Clarkson, who missed two games due to a sprained ankle, went through practice, so the second year guard expects to return to the starting lineup on Tuesday per Lakers coach Byron Scott. Scott said he hoped to try out the lineup with Lou Williams and Clarkson in the starting back court for about "10 games-plus" before making any changes.
And so, rookie point guard D'Angelo Russell will return to the bench yet again.
"I thought, again, [Russell] played with a lot of confidence," Scott said after Monday’s practice. "His command of the offense was much better. His turnovers were a little bit lower—something he’s still got to continue to work on. But I like what I saw with him. Again, I think his development is coming—slowly but surely. That's something that I thought was very positive."
The majority of Russell's maturation on the court has become visible with extra minutes the 19-year-old played late in Minnesota, when Clarkson came up gimpy on his ankle, and in the two games the rookie started with Clarkson out. As such, the return to the bench rubs a large segment of onlookers the wrong way.
"I don't know if it'll bother [Russell] or not, but he's 19 years old, so it probably will," Scott said when asked about the rookie falling out of the lineup. "But I'm going to tell him, 'listen, the last couple games, you played really well.'"
The struggle and conversation of Scott's handling of Russell has gone national multiple times this season, and national basketball writers including ESPN's Zach Lowe and Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins have taken to social media to voice their criticism of the Lakers' coach. Unfazed by the criticism, Scott said on Monday that he has been in constant conversation with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak over the development of the young kids.
Sports
Get today's sports news out of Los Angeles. Here's the latest on the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, LAFC, USC, UCLA and more LA teams.
The other top lottery pick on the Lakers' roster, Julius Randle, has struggled to find his rhythm over the past couple games. The 21-year-old only made five of his 20 shot attempts in San Antonio and Houston, but Scott thought that the length those two teams showed Randle may have disrupted the emerging star. Scott hoped that Russell's return to the second unit would help spark Randle and create a bench unit that has convincingly failed to produce recently.
"[Randle] was trying to do too much," Scott provided his analysis on Monday. "He's still, to me, a rookie."
Randle broke his leg in the Lakers' 2014-15 season opener against the Houston Rockets. The former Kentucky Wildcat would also undergo surgery on his foot, so he would not make his return to the NBA until the 2015-16 season. In many ways, Randle is still a rookie, though his physical style and powerful body make it easy to forget that fact.
Randle has accumulated 10 double-doubles over the first 24 games of the season. However, Larry Nance Jr. expects to continue starting ahead of the 7th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.
On Tuesday, the Lakers will host the Milwaukee Bucks, and both Randle and Russell should play at least 20 minutes off the bench.
