NBA Trade Rumors: D'Angelo Russell Addresses Nick Young Controversial Tape Leak
D'Angelo Russell is a promising rookie talent with a rosy future ahead of him in NBA's extremely competitive environment but with the recent scandal involving his secret videotaping of teammate Nick Young while having a candid conversation about women some months ago, the young point guard has just made himself look bad in front of his peers.
The situation appeared to have created a rift among team members which could seriously affect the franchise's game play next season if the two continue to stay together in the fold. Apart from the locker-room tension, Lakers still has a great challenge ahead of rebuilding the team in a post-Kobe Bryant era.
But the 20-year-old Russell added fuel to the fire when asked how he would respond if a physical confrontations suddenly erupts between him and Young. After all, locker-room violence was a staple in the past NBA generations.
"I'd get physical back," exclaimed as quoted by Los Angeles Times. The point guard added, "It's a point where you try to solve it the right way and I don't know the words, but [if] there's a sign of disrespect or violence is involved, sometimes you've got to let people feel you, you've got to let people know that, 'If you disrespect this guy, you know you've got to bring it.'"
With controversy spreading like wildfire following Russell's reckless comments and loss of trust from teammates, Lakers is reportedly mulling on moving the rookie for a trade. Latest roundups from rumor mill suggest that a number of teams may actually make use of the internal turmoil to get Russell.
"All those picks and young players Boston has, they could probably put a package together that would at least pique the Lakers' interest," one un-named league executive said as quoted by Sports World News. The exec added, "But do the Lakers want to move him over something like this? I don't think so. But hey, stranger things have happened."
Meanwhile, Boston Celtics is rumored to be patching up a scheme to acquire Russell. Despite the recent incident, Russell's potential cannot be easily ignored. The 20-year-old rookie is averaging 13.1 points and 3.4 assists per game as mentioned by Bleacher Report.
