D’Angelo Russell thinks Quincy Olivari is too good for the G League after watching South Bay opener

A dominant performance by Quincy Olivari in his G League debut with the South Bay Lakers has D’Angelo Russell thinking the rookie might be too good for the competition.

Quincy Olivari has been such a feel-good story in Los Angeles. He started as an Exhibit-10 player during training camp and performed so well that he was ultimately signed as a two-way player for the Lakers.

Now that the South Bay Lakers have begun their season, he will split his time between the Lakers and their G League affiliate. South Bay’s first game of the season on Saturday against South Lake City had a lot of attention and a strong Lakers presence.

It was a sold-out arena eager to see Bronny James play and plenty of Lakers, such as D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Davis, LeBron James and coach JJ Redick, were on hand.

The attention might have been leaning in Bronny’s direction, but as Olivari did this preseason, he stole the show.

He scored a team-high 28 points, going 8-19 from the field. His shooting from deep was a joy to see as he hit seven 3-pointers en route to a 110-96 win.

Following L.A.’s win versus Toronto on Sunday, Russell was asked about Olivari’s performance in the season opener for South Bay.

“I mean, I just told him to stay humble,” Russell said. “He honestly looked like he was too good for being out there, respectfully. But I know how that can get you high and then have a bad game and then get you low. It is what it is. So I just told him to stay even keel.”

Looking too good for the G League is exactly what you want to see from your two-way players and guys who are sent down to get reps instead of sitting on the bench, like Bronny James and Maxwell Lewis.

How much time Olivari can get with the main team remains to be seen. If he continues to shine for South Bay, it might cause Redick to call him up and see if he can get buckets for the Lakers.

L.A. is struggling to score points off the bench, currently averaging 23.7 per game, placing them as the fourth-worst reserve group in the NBA in terms of scoring production.

For now, the positive is Olivari is an exciting prospect, a tremendous person and can be brought to the Lakers in a pinch if needed.

He’s gotten this far and if he keeps playing this well, it’s only a matter of time before he logs his first official NBA minutes for the Lakers.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.