D'Angelo Russell posted a 33.1 assist percentage last year-- good enough for 11th in the NBA. He also carried a 25.1 usage rate-- 40th in the league for those who were curious. Only eight players in the league matched or exceeded both of those values last season and of those, Russell had the third-lowest turnover percentage. In short, the guy is a very good facilitator and does so without turning the ball over, especially when considering his usage rate. He continues to be underrated in this regard.
Additionally, Synergy Sports came up with a new metric "to find out which NBA players make their teammates' shots easier and which make their opponents' shots more difficult" called Synergy Shot Quality (SSQ). To look under the hood in how it's calculated I'll leave the link
https://synergysports.com/impacting-other-players-shot-quality/here, but it's simply an adjusted plus-minus metric with a focus on teammate scoring values.
Expected points added per 100 teammate shots as a result of improved shot quality, during the last two NBA seasons:
1. Luka Doncic (5.3)
2. Trae Young (4.9)
3. LeBron James (4.7)
4. James Harden (4.6)
5. Nikola Jokic (4.5)
6. Paul George (4.5)
7. Stephen Curry (4.4)
8. LaMelo Ball (4.2)
9. Kevin Durant (4.1)
10. D'Angelo Russell (3.5)
11. Damian Lillard (3.4)
12. Joel Embiid (2.9)
13. Kyrie Irving (2.8 )
14. Marcus Smart (2.7)
15. Kyle Lowry (2.7)
16. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2.7)
17. Karl-Anthony Towns (2.7)
18. Darius Garland (2.6)
19. Lonzo Ball (2.5)
20. Draymond Green (2.5)
Are we talking about a superstar player in Russell? Of course not, but there is an argument that he's one of the 10 best shot creators, or facilitators, in the entire league. That carries value, especially on a Timberwolves roster that severely lacks that skill.