D’Angelo Russell is in his second stint with the Nets after being traded from the Lakers this season. Russell becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer and is hoping to re-sign with Brooklyn, he told Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype.
“Why wouldn’t I? I keep seeing stuff coming out. I’ll tell you. Heck yeah. I want to be wherever I’m at,” Russell said. “I’m here. I love these guys. I appreciate this, and I would love to be back.”
Russell feels he has developed a solid relationship with first-year coach Jordi Fernandez.
“I’m at the point in my career where I’m not going out and scoring 25 points every night and wowing with numbers,” he said. “It’s a point where I’m trying to gravitate towards doing it the right way, and how I can contribute to winning is my priority. He lets me do that. He trusts me already, so I can imagine getting to training camp for something like that and having that under my belt with the guys. I think the sky’s the limit.”
We have more on the Nets:
- Cam Thomas becomes a restricted free agent after the season. While he’s a proven scorer, he still leaves much to be desired in other aspects of his game, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes. Fernandez has challenged him to become more efficient and well-rounded, especially as a defender and facilitator. However, he’s still very much a work in progress. Lewis notes that Charlotte aggressively trapped him during the Nets’ fourth-quarter collapse on Saturday. Thomas has also struggled to stay on the court, missing 81 games over the last three seasons due to injury.
- They snapped a seven-game losing streak by upsetting the Lakers on Monday and Noah Clowney played a big role with a team-high 19 points and five rebounds. Clowney was playing in just his second game since recovering from an ankle injury that caused him to miss 15 games. The 2023 first-round pick has been backing up at power forward but it would behoove the organization to give him steady minutes to see if he can be their starting power forward over the long haul, Lewis adds.
- Fernandez was pleased with the effort the team put forth against one of the Western Conference’s elite teams, according to Lewis. “So happy for the guys, proud of the guys, because after losing seven in a row … it’s just good to get back to winning,” he said. “It’s a good reward for the work. And obviously, after a bad one, it’s a good feeling.”