Golden State Warriors need D’Angelo Russell to thrive on offense

The Golden State Warriors desperately need D’Angelo Russell to be a scoring threat on offense in the midst of a difficult start to their 2019-20 season.

The Golden State Warriors have gotten off to a disastrous start this season raising many questions about the future of the team going forward. Unfortunately, their big offseason addition, D’Angelo Russell, hasn’t exactly made a great first impression either.

The Warriors were expected to take a step back this season after losing Kevin Durant in the offseason and seeing star shooting guard Klay Thompson go down with a torn ACL in June.

But this level of regression was something few could have seen coming?

Golden State was blown out on opening night by the new-look Los Angeles Clippers by a final score of 141-122. But many simply passed that off as an inexperienced team struggling against a dominant Clippers squad.

However, the same excuse can’t be made for what occurred on Sunday afternoon.

The Warriors weren’t just defeated by an Oklahoma City Thunder team that had failed to score 10 points in either of their first two games, they were decimated.

The Thunder jumped out to a huge first-half lead outscoring the Warriors 70-37 in the first half. Oklahoma City led by a whopping 42 points at one time and even though the Warriors made the final score of 120-92 look a bit more respectable, it was clear that they were outmatched.

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A defining moment came midway through the third quarter when D’Angelo Russell was tossed from the game for getting in the face of referee James Williams after what he believed was a missed foul call.

It’s been a rough start for Russell with the Warriors as the former Brooklyn Nets all-star has shot just 9-of-26 from the field through two games. And while he did manage 20 points and eight assists against the Clippers, his six points and two assists on Sunday are a bit more modest.

The Warriors need Russell to step up and provide the team a secondary scoring option if they are to have success on offense this season. With Durant gone and Thompson sidelined, Stephen Curry has essentially been left by his lonesome.

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Russell has shown plenty of scoring ability in the past but he’ll really need to find his groove and quickly if Golden State is going to start winning some games.

The thing with Russell is that, unlike Thompson and Durant, the Warriors can’t rely on him to be a stalwart on defense. If he’s not hitting shots or making plays on offense, then he becomes a major liability on the floor.

Even when Thompson and Durant weren’t on, the team could at least count on them to play solid defense and contribute in other ways. Russell, however, must succeed on offense to be successful.

Curry needs help and Russell is the player who was supposed to step up and be the secondary scoring option the Warriors were looking for. And unfortunately, we just haven’t seen that so far.

There is plenty more wrong with this team — most notably defensively — but the Warriors need to solidify a scoring option outside of Curry to find success. Here’s to hoping that D’Angelo Russell could be that player.