The Los Angeles Lakers will know for sure what team they’ll have for the rest of the 2023–24 season by Thursday afternoon. In the NBA, the trade deadline is in two days, which usually makes players who have been linked to trades for a while, like Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, worried.

Russell has been linked to almost every rumour about the Lakers. He has been linked to the Atlanta Hawks, the Brooklyn Nets, and the Toronto Raptors as teams that want to sign him either as a player or as extra money for a player the Lakers want to sign. At this point, Russell is probably going to be a part of any big move the Lakers make.

But the guard has been moved four times in eight seasons, so this is nothing new for him. He now has a different view on how to deal with the deadline and the rumours that go along with it, according to Spectrum SportsNet:

“I don’t mind.” Not at all. Do your job and show up. “That’s all.”

Russell knows that he is on the block because the dollar amount of his deal is in an area that makes it easy to move. But, once more, that’s not his main point:

“I can’t make sure that trading my contract makes sense.” Just have fun. I can’t change that. I don’t care again. Not at all.”

Russell could have escaped all the talk by signing a normal 1+1 deal during the off-season. It is common for a player who signs a two-year deal with a player option on the second season to have a no-trade rule in the first year. But Russell decided not to do that, which made him open to rumours right away. He told them why he was ready to do it:

“It made sense to me.” Naturally, I’ve been here before; I’ve played for the Lakers before, so I know what it takes to do well here. You will do well if you are a part of the future here. We’ll trade you if you don’t. When I come here, I’m a little different because I’ve been moved before. I honestly and humbly don’t care because I know I can’t control it and I won’t let my mind wander there. I like to concentrate on this, and you can see that I’ve been concentrating on basketball instead of tweets and social media trends.

For Russell, getting moved is just part of the job. He no longer cares about whether or not he will be dealt at this point. Part of the reason he’s been playing some of the best basketball of his career lately is that he’s not as worried about what other people think he should be doing.

There are only two days left for the Lakers to make a big choice. Russell has two days to find out where his next game will be played, either with the Laker’s or on the other side.