D’Angelo Russell is set to embark on the next stage of his career with Golden State Warriors. NBA fans, however, are still perplexed as to why the Phoenix Suns allowed the Warriors to acquire the young guard and did not choose to pursue his signing. The fact that Suns’ core player, Devin Booker, and Russell are close friends.
D-Lo is a Warrior. Wow.
Golden State has acquired D'Angelo Russell in a sign-and-trade deal worth $117M over 4 years, per @wojespn pic.twitter.com/TVuVLkDd2a
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 1, 2019
As it turns out, the higher-ups at the Suns believe that D’Angelo Russell might actually be a bad influence to Devin Booker. This does come as a surprising bit of information- after all, Russell was the leader of the Raptors prior to his trade.
However, there are a few facts that seem to have made up the minds of those in power at the Suns:
Russell caught carrying weed in New York
Russell was indeed caught in possession of a can of marijuana in New York last year. But to label him as a bad influence just on the basis of this incident seems a bit over the top.
Even Magic Johnson, who was at the core of the messy departure of Russell from the Lakers, has admitted that the 23-year-old is now much more mature as a player and as a person.
The real reason why the Suns chose to not go for Russell seems to be financial. The 23 year old commands a hefty price of $27.3 million a year. The Suns, on the other hand, could only offer $22.8 million, owing the cap problems. Hence, the Suns decided to go for Rubio instead, at a $51 million, 3 year contract.
Russell to not stay at Warriors for long
Right now, with Klay Thompson out, Russell is like a godsend fo rthe warriors. However, Mar Stein of the NY Times believes that the Warriors management have signed Russell as a short term measure, and do not believe that he fits in well with the Warriors play style. Russell will be hoping to prove both them and his doubters wrong.
I think Brooklyn is going to very much regret going with Kyrie over D’Angelo Russell
— KFC (@KFCBarstool) July 1, 2019
