At the end of the day, D'Angelo Russell is a slightly above-average starting NBA point guard. But the way he gets to that place is by being incredible half the time, and nearly unplayable the other half. And therein lies the full D'Angelo Russell experience — at the end of the day, it's pretty good. But on those rough days, it can get pretty rough.
And with Kyrie Irving out for most of the season, and the only other real ball-handling options being Dante Exum and a rookie in Cooper Flagg, it's not like Russell can fade into the background on this Mavs team; he will be front and center when the season starts, with real responsibilities as a ball-handler and playmaker for his teammates.