Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Rewind: Profiling Towns and Russell
Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Rewind: Profiling Towns and Russell
Russell & Hardaway/Roy Comparison
While Russell entered the NBA Draft after his freshman season, Anfernee (Penny) Hardaway and Brandon Roy entered after their junior and senior seasons, respectively. This allowed for them to be more “NBA-ready” when they entered the league.
D-Lo is currently in his fifth season, being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers and playing for the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors before finding his home in Minnesota. So far in his career, he has accomplished All-Rookie Second Team and was an All-Star in his fourth season in the league.
Russell’s comparison to Hardaway stems from both players being bigger point guards who could score the ball in a variety of ways and always seemed to make the right play. Meanwhile, the D-Lo and Roy comparison was a result of each player’s decision-making, mid-range game and shooting touch, and confidence in the way they play.
Looking at each player’s stats through their first five seasons, Russell has averaged 17.5 points, whereas Penny averaged 19.5 and Roy put in 19 points per game. However, Russell played 29 minutes per game while the other two averaged more than 35 minutes a contest. Looking at the per-36 minutes numbers, Russell has impressively averaged 21.6 points compared to 19 and 19.2 from Hardaway and Roy, respectively.
Per 36 minutes, Russell has also averaged 6.5 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.4 steals while shooting 42 percent from the floor and 35.6 percent from three. D-Lo has also turned the ball over 3.6 times per 36 minutes.
Hardaway averaged 6.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.9 steals Per-36 minutes through his first five seasons on 48 percent shooting and three turnovers per game.
Roy’s per-36 numbers include averages of 4.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and one steal while shooting 46 percent from the field and 35.2 percent from deep in the first five seasons of his career. He also had 1.9 turnovers per game.