The inevitable change could have been tracked by a stopwatch rather than a calendar, it turned out, with Lakers coach Byron Scott waiting all the way until the second game to make D’Angelo Russell the starting point guard. Why? Because Jordan Clarkson may have been a success story last season in going from No. 46 pick to first-team All-Rookie, but Russell has a chance to be special.
That assessment is not just about the future either. While Russell still needs to prove he can keep up defensively with quick point guards and obviously has a lot to learn at 19 years old after one season at Ohio State as NBA prep, the raves from Scott in one critical area are unmistakable: Russell is as good a passer or better than two of Scott’s past rookie points guards, Chris Paul (New Orleans/Oklahoma City in 2005-06) and Kyrie Irving (Cleveland, 2011-12).
“He’s up there with CP,” Scott said. “I’m just naming some that I had. CP and Kyrie. He’s probably a better passer than Kyrie. He’s right there with CP as a rookie, as a 19-year-old. His court vision is exceptional. Some times he gets a little lazy with the pass or he tries to be a little too cute. He has to learn our guys a little bit more and that just comes with playing with one another. There’s some guys, they don’t think he sees them and he’ll make a pass and it goes out of bounds because he did see them. They’ve just got to get used to him because he is one of those guys who can make the pass that you don’t think is wide open.”
And those were not rough transitions for either. Paul easily won Rookie of the Year in 2005-06 as Deron Williams got the only other first-place vote. (The best advice from there is to not look at the top five after CP3: Charlie Villanueva, Andrew Bogut, Raymond Felton, Channing Frye.) Irving was also a landslide winner, in 2011-12, although at least the closest challengers were Ricky Rubio, Kenneth Faried, Kawhi Leonard and Iman Shumpert, with Klay Thompson sixth.
For the man who coached all three — and knowing what became of Paul and with Irving so far — to say Russell compares favorably as a passer is very encouraging in what is already spinning into another gloomy Lakers season. It is not a surprise — front offices before the Draft loved what Russell could become as a distributor — but it is noteworthy around the same time as Scott quickly moves Russell from playing off the ball alongside Clarkson and small forward Kobe Bryant in the opener to flipping with Clarkson two nights later.
Russell was always going to become the starting point guard at some stage, so no big deal that it happened now. This is the future coming sooner, though, and the chance to better assess the No. 2 choice in the role he wanted — running the offense, creating opportunities for teammates and starting to mesh with power forward Julius Randle to show a Russell-Randle pairing is a better than Randle-Jahlil Okafor if L.A. had gone center in June.
To the rankings, with only one change at the bottom to allow the rookies more than three or four games before being judged:
1. Jahlil Okafor, Philadelphia 76ers (Last week: 1)
The very early returns are encouraging, with two of the first three games at 24 points or more, plus some good moments on defense. The next new challenge starts Wednesday: five games in eight days in the real welcome-to-the-NBA moment, followed by a couple days off and right into a road back-to-back against Serge Ibaka and the Oklahoma City Thunder and Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. Okafor making it to the middle of the month in decent shape will be a nice accomplishment.
2. Emmanuel Mudiay, Denver Nuggets (2)
Even those of us who braced for choppy play early were not prepared for this erratic: 11 turnovers in the opener and then twice as many turnovers as assists in the second game. He finally had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio in his third outing, but then missed 11 of his 14 shots. Four games in, Mudiay has 26 assists, 25 turnovers and shoots 30.9 percent from the field. The Nuggets will ride it out and aware all along, despite the hype, that this type of stretch was likely and that there will be many nights with sparkling reviews.
3. Stanley Johnson, Detroit Pistons (3)
The first three games were a combined 9-for-28 from the field and 2-for-7 on 3-pointers, but Johnson contributed to Detroit’s good start with a prominent reserve role as coach Stan Van Gundy followed through with starting forwards Marcus Morris and Ersan Ilyasova. Maybe familiar settings will get Johnson’s offense going. The six-game Western swing that begins Friday includes stops in Phoenix, about 125 miles from his college career at Arizona, and outings against the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers in his hometown.
4. Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves (4)
Opening with 14 points and 12 rebounds followed by 28 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks would have been impressive enough under typical circumstances. To have those three days with the locker room unimaginably raw following the death of Flip Saunders, the coach and president of basketball operations who drafted Towns at No. 1, is especially commendable. Even a tepid third game of 11 points and five rebounds (along with an un-tepid four blocks) does not diminish the enthusiasm.
5. D’Angelo Russell, Los Angeles Lakers (5)
The first meeting of the top two point guards in the Draft — No. 2 Russell and No. 7 Mudiay — did not go well for either. Russell missed eight of 11 shots, but did have six assists against one turnover, while Mudiay was 3-for-13 from the field with 10 assists and six turnovers in Denver’s 120-109 win Tuesday in Los Angeles. That dropped Russell to 34.1 percent in four games.
6. Mario Hezonja, Orlando Magic (6)
Hezonja shooting 35.3 percent is a slow start, but not as much of an issue as averaging 14.8 minutes. The longer the relatively minor role continues, the greater the chances of a drop in the rankings, even if his shooting improves. Carving out a role in the Magic rotation was always going to be the issue, a good problem for Orlando to have as it builds depth with real possibilities, just not for Hezonja.
7. Kristaps Porzingis, New York Knicks (7)
The pre-Draft buzz was he is not nearly strong enough yet to play inside at power forward. Someone will break him in half under the boards. Reached for comment, Porzingis said: eight rebounds in 26 minutes, six in 21 minutes and 14 in 24 minutes in his last three games. The most recent — against the San Antonio Spurs of LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, Boris Diaw and some David West — included eight offensive boards and a couple blocks.
8. Willie Cauley-Stein, Sacramento Kings (8)
Coach George Karl didn’t want to throw Cauley-Stein to Blake Griffin the first night, no matter how well WCS will compare to other rookies on defense, so Kosta Koufos got the start instead. Two nights later, with Griffin nowhere to be found, Cauley-Stein moved into the opening lineup alongside DeMarcus Cousins and responded with 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in 30 minutes.Nine more rebounds followed the next game, and seven more after that.
9. Myles Turner, Indiana Pacers (9)
He has yet to play more than 23 minutes or grab more than four rebounds as the backup center, but Turner is shooting 61.1 percent (and not because most opportunities are around the basket). The No. 11 selection is already flashing his versatile offensive game, hitting mid-range and perimeter shots.
10. Jerian Grant, New York Knicks (not ranked)
The plan inside Ladder HQ was to keep the season-opening top 10 for two weeks to build a body of work, but Justin Anderson barely played in Dallas. Enter Grant and his four years of experience in a major program. The Notre Dame product — and brother of Philadelphia 76ers forward Jerami Grant, who is coming off an encouraging rookie campaign himself — opened with an assist-to-turnover ratio slightly better than 2-1 while shooting 53.8 percent and averaging 24.4 minutes in four games. This is what being NBA ready at 23 years old looks like.
Dropped out: Anderson (10).
