The Lakers hosted the Suns today, and they came back from a 22-point deficit in the second half. In the end, he won 123-116. The vast majority of the Lakers' players played very well in this game. When we look at the stats, you can see that there was only one player in the starting line-up who was very sluggish, and that player was Russell.

Russell started the game today and played 29 minutes and scored just five points on 1-of-6 shooting. Today, Reaves' role on the court has clearly surpassed Russell's. Reaves had 26 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists today, not only did he perform very well on the offensive end, but he also did a good job in tandem with the ball. In the final moments of today's game, you will find that there is no Russell on the field, and it is Vincent who replaces Russell. Although Vincent's performance on the offensive end was not particularly outstanding today, scoring five points in the game, the role of the defensive end in the final critical moment was still very obvious.

Russell didn't feel good on the offensive end of the court, and the defensive end itself was easy to be targeted by the opponent, so Redick also directly took Russell at the last moment and replaced him with Vincent, who had stronger defensive ability. In fact, this is also the problem that the Lakers have been having last season, that is, Russell's defensive problems have really dragged down the Lakers to a certain extent. There's no denying that Russell will have explosive performances in some games, but his defensive performance has been truly disastrous. If he has a slump in the middle of a game, then he is a side effect on the field.

Redick clearly saw Russell's problems as soon as he took over, so you'll find that Redick emphasized the importance of Reeves in the offseason, and he also focused on reusing Reeves in practice this season. It can be seen that Russell's current position with the Lakers is very awkward, he can only play the role of a fixed-point shooter, and he is a fixed-point shooter role without defense. Probably in the future, we'll often see Russell miss his last-minute appearance.

In fact, the Lakers tried to trade Russell this offseason, but no one in the league was willing to take over Russell, so Russell stayed with the Lakers. But in the current Lakers roster, Russell can't be in the crunch time. His defense in key moments will really make the Lakers lose more than they lose. Redick is also a more decisive manager. It doesn't matter if you're starting or coming off the bench, they're going to take you down when you're showing side effects on the pitch.

The future may be a test of Russell's personal mentality, Russell himself is still a more self-oriented player, if his tactical position in the Lakers is declining more and more, he may have personal emotional problems. He's like a ticking time bomb for the Lakers, maybe it will go off at some point in the regular season. The Lakers already have a potential young man like Knecht at this stage. They should find a way to trade Russell this year. I wonder what the fans think?