The optimism about changing things around actually started two years ago.
To make a long story short – since many of you know it already (or could educate yourselves here) – it was when D’Angelo Russell arrived. The prodigal from the freeways emerging from the depths of a Brooklyn subway stop.
Then a talented, potential packed 21-year-old, the Louisville, Kentucky native arrived from the Lakers after two turbulent seasons out west, before Magic Johnson gave up on him in favor of Lonzo Ball. (How’s that working out?