Warriors’ D’Angelo Russell Soaks In Time With Steph Curry In First Practice

Stephen Curry and D’Angelo Russell spend their Tuesday afternoon together. The Golden State Warriors had their first training-camp practice.

“Definitely that first day of school vibe,” Russell said Tuesday after the practice.

Russell signed a four-year contract worth $117 million in July.

“I’ve been around a little bit to know what the schemes are, so it’s all becoming second nature for me,” Russell said. “Just having that experience around the league, a little bit of guarding these guys throughout a year and playing against them throughout a year. So you kind of pick up on it.”

“It’s really helpful for the D’Angelo to have played for Luke because a lot of the stuff we do in practices are very similar,” head coach Steve Kerr added.

Thompson won’t return until February. Curry and Russell will have to take turns off the ball, and Kerr is convinced that this will work.

“I think he’ll be good off the ball,” Kerr said of Russell. “He’s a clever passer. A clever basketball player, so he understands how to come off a pindown without the ball and then once he gets in traffic in the paint, he knows how to create either a shot or get the ball out to someone who is not covered and that’s a big deal.”

Curry can lead Russell, and they have already worked out together in the Bay Area. On Tuesday, Russell said he modeled his game after Curry.

“I mean coming into the league, I was kind of frail and I could shoot the ball a little bit. I could pass the ball a little bit,” Russell said. “So just watching him throughout his process of being able to guide and take advantage of being frail and how I use that against a stronger defender, or how he got his shot off and get some more athletic defenders, stuff like that.

“I tried to take away from [that] cause that’s something that I had a problem with coming into the league. Like I said, playing a few years, watching … his process and a few other guys’ processes, you see, you pick up on things.”

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