Thad Matta knew he wasn't going to have D'Angelo Russell too long at Ohio State — way before the rest of us did.
"It was probably our preseason scrimmage at West Virginia when he had 33 and he hit the game-winner," Matta said April 23, the day after Russell announced his intentions to enter the 2015 NBA Draft. "I kind of scratched my head and said, ‘Uh oh.’ This kid, he was doing things that we hadn’t even talked about yet in terms of drill work, it was a real early scrimmage."
Russell was special in his lone season in Columbus, taking home Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors after averaging 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. The season ended with a disappointing 73-58 loss to Arizona in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, but Russell had made his point to the nation as one of the best players in the country.
Russell also earned All-American honors before electing to turn pro, even though his father, Antonio, had established an agreement with Matta that his son would stay in school at least two years. As the season progressed however, Russell swelled into a superstar and carried the Buckeyes to 24 victories.
NBA Draft heads have taken notice, with the majority believing Russell will be the third player off the board Thursday night in Brooklyn after Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns and Duke's Jahlil Okafor.
"I think D’Angelo Russell is the best point guard in the draft," ESPN NBA Draft analyst Fran Fraschilla said on a media conference call Tuesday. "I would just simply say he's the best passer ... maybe (Minnesota Timberwolves point guard) Ricky Rubio coming from Spain would be in the same category. But this kid is the best passer I’ve seen in a decade. He throws passes to teammates who don’t even know they’re open and that's hard to do."
Russell made outstanding passes and plenty of other brilliant plays throughout the course of last season, but his game does have holes.
"This kid is the best passer I’ve seen in a decade. He throws passes to teammates who don’t even know they’re open and that's hard to do."– Fran Fraschilla on D'Angelo Russell
Russell is a volume shooter, his defense is suspect and he struggled against upper tier competition like Louisville (initially), North Carolina and later Arizona. He also battled leg cramps often towards the end of the season, a byproduct of logging 33.9 minutes minutes a game for a team that looked befuddled offensively when he wasn't on the court.
"I would think it would be physical maturity at this point," Fraschilla said when asked to identify a knock on Russell's game. "I think just the physicalness of the game night in and out as an NBA rookie, 82 games, one night guarding Russell Westbrook the next night guarding Kyrie Irving, the next night guarding Chris Paul and on and on and on. So I think there's going to be an adjustment period for him."
There's an adjustment period for every player who enters the league regardless of talent or size, but Russell's performance last season has the draft's top four teams (Minnesota, the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks) taking a long, hard look at the kid who didn't even turn 19 until the end of February.
Russell did it all for Ohio State last season.
"You have to have star guards if you're going to win in the NBA. That's why D'Angelo Russell is such an appealing prospect, as high as No. 2. He's got superstar potential and you need that," Tom Penn, a former NBA executive and current draft insider for ESPN, said on the conference call. "It used to be unthinkable that you'd think of a combo guard ahead of a big man the quality of Okafor or Towns, but in today's NBA you just need an unstoppable wing with the way that coaches are spreading the floor and opening up driving lanes."
Small ball is trending upward in the league right now — just look at the 2015 NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Head coach Steve Kerr's decision to insert 6-foot-6 Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup for 7-footer Andrew Bogut in Game 4 of the Finals against Cleveland completely changed the series.
The Cavaliers led 2-1 at the time of the switch, but watched the Warriors race past them primarily using a smaller lineup with more depth to win three straight games and the title as Iguodala won Finals MVP.
"The game has evolved to a faster more wide open, spread game," Fraschilla said.
That plays right into Russell's hands, which is why it's intriguing to consider him at No. 2 after Towns. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Russell worked out multiple times with the Lakers this spring and continues to surface in the organization's internal discussions, assuming Towns goes No. 1 to the Timberwolves.
"I am not Magic Johnson and I'm not 6-9, but I am 6-5 and it gives me an advantage to see over the smaller guards," Russell told Wojnarowski. "Watching Magic, you learned to turn your back, put the guards on your hip and then dice up the defense."
Russell — who's also gone on record and said he's "the best player in the draft" — fires passes that make you think of Johnson's days with the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s, when he and his teammates annihilated defenses in transition and scored at a blistering pace.
Jay Bilas and Chad Ford, two more draft insiders for ESPN, hosted a Twitter mock draft Monday evening where they alternated picks to simulate the first round. Bilas chose Russell at No. 3 to the 76ers, but Ford disagreed.
Sixers drafting Russell makes a lot of sense @JayBilas, but I still feel like Porzingis has the most upside at 3 #FordBilasMock
— Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) June 23, 2015
That's Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia, another 19-year-old with tremendous potential. He's 7-foot-1 and sports a ridiculous wingspan reported anywhere from 87 to 90 inches.
But while draft day often brings surprises in all shapes and forms, count Penn and Fraschilla in Matta's court by saying Russell's professional ceiling is extremely high.
"He's just a kid, he's just gotta ripen up and mature but he's got major boom potential, superstar potential," Penn said.
