Lakers $36 Million Star Tabbed ‘Flight Risk’ in Free Agency

Perhaps the big surprise when it comes to Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell is not so much that he is heading into the final year of his contract with the team as a potential risk to bolt in free agency in 2025—no, perhaps the bigger surprise is that Russell remains on the team at all here as the summer of 2024 wraps up.

The Lakers have a certain ambivalence about Russell and his contributions, no doubt. He is a very important offensive player for the team, but one who struggled badly in the playoffs, leaving his defensive weakness exposed and highlighting him as a problem the Lakers need to fix.

Before the start of free agency, the hope seemed to be that Russell would opt out of the final year and $18.7 million of his contract and become a free agent, freeing up the flexibility for the Lakers to pursue players like Klay Thompson or Jonas Valanciunas. Instead, Russell picked up the final year of the deal.

The hope then became a potential trade of Russell, who surely could be useful to another team in need of point guard help. The Magic? The Nets? Alas, no deal came and Russell will be a Laker in 2024-25.

After that, though, the folks at Bleacher Report have him slated as (finally) being a “flight risk” in 2025.

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Lakers Tried to Make Offseason Trade

In an article titled, “2025 NBA Free Agents Who Will Be Flight Risks,” Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz highlighted Russell as a strong candidate to bolt the Lakers in next year’s free-agency class, one that will be lacking in star power.

Wrote Swartz:

“The Lakers have been rumored to want to swap Russell out for an upgrade, but have yet to do so. Los Angeles also needs Russell during the regular season to take some scoring pressure off of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and the 28-year-old point guard did average 18.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists and shot 41.5 percent from three last year.

“While Russell got to decide his future this summer, his return to the Lakers for the 2025-26 season will need to be a mutual decision. It appears far more likely that Los Angeles will attempt to use his expiring deal to help orchestrate a trade at some point this season than the two sides agreeing to a new contract next summer.”

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D’Angelo Russell Struggled Badly in the Postseason

But the problem with Russell is not his ability to score from October to April. It’s what happens thereafter that has troubled the Lakers. The disdain for Russell among those in Lakerland began in the 2023 playoffs, when Russell averaged 13.3 points on 42.6% shooting and 31.0% 3-point shooting. The bottom dropped out in the conference finals against the Nuggets, when Russell scored just 6.3 points per game and shot 32.3%, including 13.3% from the 3-point line.

He was pulled from the starting five by the end of that series.

Last year, in five games against the Nuggets in the playoffs, Russell averaged 14.3 points and shot 38.4% from the field.

In June, when Russell decided to opt in to the second year of the $36 million contract the team signed him to in 2023, he immediately was the subject of repeated trade fodder. The Athletic reported at the time:

“How long Russell remains a Laker is another matter altogether. After failing to trade Russell ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, the Lakers are expected to be aggressive in pursuing Russell-centric trades, according to league and team sources. Russell’s expiring contract immediately becomes one of Los Angeles’ more valuable trade assets, particularly for salary-matching purposes.”

But Russell was never close to being traded. That could still happen—if not, he’s likely gone in free agency next summer.

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