Summary
Russell is a very gifted offensively player. He's not the most athletic when it comes to speed or explosiveness, but he's quick and has great handles to create space off the dribble, allowing him to get jumpers off from deep or from midrange, hit floaters, or get all the way to the rim. He can legitimately score at all levels on decent (but not great) efficiency. With Minnesota he had a decent true shooting of 56%, and that has risen slightly to 59% after being traded back to Los Angeles. Russell has the step-back 3-pointer in his game, and that becomes a real weapon particularly after a big switches onto him. 

If the defense doesn't switch in pick-and-roll, Russell has great precision on his pocket passes, something that he has had in his game ever since college. He does force some passes, and has typically posted poor turnover rates.

Defensively, Russell really struggles. He can get caught ball-watching and lose cutters or shooters that are relocating to a different area. He isn't always in a good defensive stance and can get blown by as an on-ball defender. He usually gets hidden on the least threatening perimeter player. As long as he's surrounded by other good perimeter defenders, that's a viable path, but it becomes less viable the deeper you get in the playoffs, as weaknesses get exposed more often. He played pretty poorly in the 2023 playoffs for the Lakers, and was inconsistent at best in 2024.

Russell is a talented player, but at the end of the day I'm not sure there are many situations where I would want him as my starting point guard. He's more of a ceiling raiser than a floor raiser, as he's not quite good enough to be the straw that stirs the drink for a great team, but not the kind of player that fits nicely into a supporting role either. Finding the right suitor will be key for him and his agent when getting ready for free agency because it's not easy to think of many great fits. Even if he has to take a little less money, he may end up opting out just to have say in his destination and avoid being used as a trade piece by the Lakers later.
 
Cap Considerations
Russell has a $19.2 million player option for '24-'25, and if he declines that option he will be an unrestricted free agent with a $26.7 million cap hold and full Bird Rights, meaning the Lakers will have no restrictions on re-signing him. Since the Lakers will most likely be operating over the cap, and because his cap hold is greater than his expected starting salary, his cap hold is not really relevant.

Since Russell's starting salary will most likely be above the $12.9 million Nontaxpayer Mid-Level Exception if he opts out due to what he would get by opting in, only teams with cap space will be able to sign him. If Russell and an above-the-cap team have mutual interest, a sign-and-trade could be worked out, or an opt-in and trade.