If he doesn't change, all that means is they likely don't use him as often at the ends of close games, since all close games will end with Bron/AD two-man game and, ideally, three shooters waiting for the pass. If he wants to consistently play in those moments, then sure, he's gotta figure out better off-ball skills.

But if he doesn't? Russ runs transition offense. Lakers were one of the slowest teams in the NBA last year, because Bron simply can't bust ass up the court like that anymore. But you know who can? One of the best transition basketball players in the world over the last decade plus. Bron can jog up the floor (or spend time on the bench, thank god for him) while Russ sprints like a bat out of hell up and down the court, driving, kicking, etc. Having a *literal* change of pace would be fucking huge for the Lakers.

And even when they're on the floor together, it's only gonna be a detriment in half-court sets if they have Russ and another non-shooter (Rondo, for instance) on the floor. We saw Russ and Rondo together a little during that Warriors game, and the defense just packed in as hard as it fucking could, lol. Vogel just has to figure out the right rotation pieces. If Russ and Bron are out there together, it needs to be all shooters like Monk and them. If one of Russ or Bron aren't on the court, you can play guys like Rondo or some of the more defense-first guys alongside.

But yeah, Russ has such obvious regular season value for the Lakers. Anyone overreacting to one bad Russ game... isn't familiar with the last decade plus of Russ basketball, lol. He lays an egg sometimes. Other times he's gonna go for 45-15-20 and singlehandedly drag a team to victory in some spot against a middling team when other stars might mentally take a night off, lol.