Golden State Warriors: D’Angelo Russell is again having the best season of his career

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: D’Angelo Russell is having a career year. The fifth-year guard continues to improve his play.

The Golden State Warriors may have considered trading D’Angelo Russell after they signed him this past summer. Well, with this current team, they should be glad they’ve kept the 23-year-old star as his value has only continued to climb.

While many may be arguing that Russell’s putting up empty numbers, the fact of the matter is that Russell’s scoring at a high level, averaging 24.0 points per game. He’s doing it while shooting efficiently, taking a handful of low-percentage shots on a team that struggles to find offense.

Each year of his career, Russell’s increased his points per 36 minutes.

He kicked off his career with the Lakers, notching 16.8. Now, he’s at almost 27 per game. But, that’s not even the most impressive part. In my opinion, the most impressive part of Russell’s development has been two-fold.

While on the court, he’s certainly developed into the team’s leader offensively and became extremely lethal in the pick-and-roll. That’s been impressive to see.

Secondly, he’s stepping up as a shooter, averaging 3.7 threes per game while shooting a career-high 38.1% from downtown.

The Warriors say the writing on the wall after Russell, a then 22-year-old, helped take Brooklyn to the postseason a year ago. He was the team’s most dominant offensive player, and that success has translated to Golden State.

Sadly, we have yet to see the duo of Stephen Curry and Russell for an extended period of time. That could truly unlock Russell to be the best on-court version of himself, although likely reducing his numbers.

That said, while teams were worrying about creating max-contract space for Russell this past offseason, the Warriors were busy figuring out the easiest way of securing the young All-Star. Their faith in the guard has paid off in a big way.

Expect them to continue to reap the benefits as the Warriors should return to championship contention next season.