The Los Angeles Lakers will feature two of their young players in the Rising Stars Challenge during the NBA's All-Star weekend, as Jordan Clarkson and D'Angelo Russell both earned invitations.
Notably, though, second-year forward Julius Randle did not earn an invite despite ranking in top 20 in double-doubles during the 2015-16 season. Randle has more double-doubles than Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony and LaMarcus Aldridge.
While Randle's omission is slightly curious, Clarkson and Russell's inclusions come with little surprise. Clarkson enters Thursday's game against the Chicago Bulls having scored 10 or more points in 24 of his last 25 games. Russell continues to improve on both ends of the court, and the 19-year-old's scoring has been especially improved recently.
While Russell has made strides, Lakers coach Byron Scott has not hesitated to pull the rookie as he sees fit. In a close game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, Scott pulled Russell with 2:31 remaining in a two-point game.
"I saw the last couple minutes that he was in that he was really trying to take over the game, and that's not him yet," Scott explained why he benched the rookie. "I want the ball to move a little bit. I thought it stuck with him. He tried to make the big shots and things like that. I understand that, but to me, that's not him right now."
When asked about Scott's comments, Russell retorted, "We had four, five playmaking players out there. I feel like everybody was trying to do that."
Seconds later, the rookie slightly contradicted himself, "It was a small, split window of taking a shot and passing it up with a shot clock violation on me. It always was in my hands and I had to take a shot. And I missed it. I don't know if he would have said that if he was making those shots."
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Likely, Scott would argue that Russell's tunnel vision resulted in the benching, and the made shots would not have changed his view. After all, Scott played a role in drafting Russell, and the coach spoke highly of the guard's passing vision and ability to make teammates better by even invoking the name of Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Being a point guard with the ball and deciding to go it alone may yield points and results in the short term, but the goal is to have Russell run the team and be a dual threat that is as deadly with the pass as he is with the shot.
To that end, Russell did not record a single assists against the Mavericks in 25 minutes, though he has put together a string of eight straight games scoring in double figures.
"I love the fact that he has confidence," Scott did not entirely bury his guard. "When it gets to the point where it's cockiness, then we've got a problem."
Is he there yet?
"I think he's pretty close," Scott said. "I don't think he's there. I just think he feels right now that he's got a lot of confidence in himself. Like I said, that's a good thing. You don't get this far without having that. And sometimes you don't get this far without having a little cockiness, as well. But you don't want that to overshadow the confidence that he has."
