Angle Fantasy Basketball

Russ has had a rough couple of seasons. Borderline unrosterable at certain points due to how detrimental he’d be to your squad in percentages and turnovers.

However, he’s made a bit of a change early this season. On a team where his usage would seemingly be the lowest it would be in his whole career, next to Kawhi, PG, and now Harden – he’s taking the most efficient shots of his entire career. His current 49% FG percentage is in line with how he finished the 22-23 season with his new role on the Clippers.

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22-23 Season stats (LAC):

GP	MPG	FG%	FT%	3PM	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
21	30.2	.489	.658	1.2	15.8	4.9	7.6	1.1	0.5	3.4

23-24 Season stats:

GP	MPG	FG%	FT%	3PM	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
8	31.5	.490	.600	1.1	15.0	6.9	6.1	1.8	0.4	3.3

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What he’s doing better:

Something I’m sure that jumps out at you is that rough FT%, but a key change from last season, is he’s no longer getting to the FT line nearly at the rate he has in previous seasons. Even if the % is low, it’s almost irrelevant to the category if he’s hardly taking any shots.

He’s currently averaging 1.9 FT attempts per game, down from 3.9 per game after he came on with the Clips, and 4.6 FTA per game with the Lakers last season.

He currently has 4 games this season with zero trips to the line, which is already about half of his total from last season he had only 9 games out of 73 with zero FT attempts!

It seems likely this is a direct result of his decrease in drives per game. According to NBA.com, during his time with the Lakers last season (52 appearances), he averaged 15.1 drives per game, which was good for 13th in the entire league. Whereas post all star break, after he signed with LAC, he was down to 9.7 drives per game, which was good for 67th. His numbers to this point this season coincide with those, as he’s currently averaging 8.9 DPG which has him at 64th overall.

And it’s not like he’s taking less shots, during his Lakers stint last season he averaged 14 FGA per game, where last season with LAC he averaged 12.5 FGA per game and 13 FGA per game this season. These are just better looks.

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Fantasy analysis:

Let’s review the overall increase his fantasy impact. Last season with the Lakers, Brodie’s 9 cat ranking was outside of the top 200, coming in at 216, and even punting FT% had him outside the top 125, ranking #138 over 52 games played.

However, we see him shoot up 53 spots to #163 overall after he signed with the Clippers, and punting FT sticks him at #123.

But here’s where I’m really excited, because of his overall decrease in FT volume, he’s become a legitimate asset once more to just about any build, in almost any league size.

Over his first 8 games this season, he’s ranking 69th overall. Sure, you can attribute some of this to his bump in steals to start the season, which probably comes back down to the 1.0-1.1 he’s averaged the past few season, but his ranking is a little besides the point here.

We know he’s a counting stats monster. The negative side effects of owning him are being mitigated with zero FT volume, and his shot efficiency skyrocketing. He’s not really going to hurt you just about anywhere besides TO, and most people are in a position to ignore that category completely anyways.

Harden isn’t too concerning to me. If anything it’s possible this helps keep Russ as a useable asset, by reducing the amount of hero ball we see him play. The assists might come down to around 5.5-6, but that’ll still play.

I’m hesitant to call him a league winner type, but for the price you can get him for, he just may be. Go get him if the owner in your league still has the negative connotation associated with him.

Unless you’re in a league with me – I already have him.