NBA
Lakers Trade D’Angelo Russell To Nets For Shake Milton And Dorian Finney-Smith
Olly Taliku has worked with highly respected sports and gambling websites such as The Sports Daily, Basketball Insiders, Augusta Free Press and Business2Community where he has produced hundreds of articles alongside being published with Burton Albion and Chesterfield FC. At Burton Olly worked closely alongside the women's team, producing mainly matchday content including reports and interviews, while at Chesterfield he worked in a similar role but with the academy side, as well as some first team content. He also has experience as an accredited Premier League and EFL writer for Prost International where he worked during the 2021/22 season to produce matchday content as an on location reporter. Olly specialises in football as well as long form SEO content plus news, tips and betting but also produces content on basketball, baseball and American football. Some of his sports betting work can be found on www.sportslens.com and www.thesportsdaily.com.
All posts by Oliver TalikuUpdated30 Dec 2024
D’Angelo Russell is heading back to Brooklyn this season, as the Lakers have traded the veteran in exchange for Shake Milton and Dorian Finney-Smith.
Nets Trading For Russell
After another three years in Los Angeles, the Lakers have traded D’Aneglo Russell back to another team he has already played for during his career.
Russell will be making his return to New York for the rest of this year, having already played for the Brooklyn Nets between 2017-19 after his first two years in the league with the Lakers.
Welcome back to Brooklyn D’Angelo Russell👑 pic.twitter.com/yuPnQ8Zj1g
— NetsFrequent (@Nets_Frequent) December 29, 2024
Brooklyn failed to make the playoffs in Russell’s first year, but when he played all but one of the 82 league games in 2018, the Nets finished sixth in the East and advanced to the postseason with Russell named All-Star.
After two years in New York, Russell was traded to the Warriors, before spending time with the Timberwolves until 2023 when he made his long awaited return to Los Angeles.
Russell played in 76 games for the Lakers last year, which was his busiest season in the league since reaching the playoffs with Brooklyn five years ago.
This year again Russell has been important for the Lakers but after 29 appearances (10 starts) his performances have been more sluggish than usual.
The 28-year-old has averaged just 12.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists for LA and Russell was seen as an expendable option for the aging Lakers.
Lakers get:
- Dorian Finney-Smith
- Shake Milton
Nets get:
- D’Angelo Russell
- Maxwell Lewis
- Three future 2nd-round picks
Lakers Acquire Dorian Finney-Smith & Shake Milton
At the centre of the D-Lo trade is Dorian Finney-Smith, with the ninth year forward moving to his third NBA team after stints in Brooklyn and Dallas.
Finney-Smith is averaging 10.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists this year and he has started every one of the 20 games he has been involved in. The 31-year-old is also shooting a career-high 44% from beyond the arc in 2024.
As well as three future second-round picks, the Lakers will also receive Shake Milton for Russell who will add more depth to the roster. Milton is a solid bench player who has played 27 games this season, averaging 7.4 points per game from 18.2 minutes on the court.
Both Finney-Smith and Milton are currently considered day-to-day having just joined, but both new players could feature as soon as Tuesday night in the Lakers tough test against the Cavaliers.
