Byron Scott was head coach for Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul as he is this season with the Los Angeles Lakers for D'Angelo Russell.

Scott has maintained that Russell isn’t as polished offensively as Irving was and isn’t as ready to lead as Paul was with New Orleans.

Scott said his relationship with Irving was without much conflict, unlike that with Russell.

“Not really,” Scott said when asked if he had to push Irving to work harder. “He was like how a lot of young guys are today: It’s hard to get him in the gym, but then it’s hard to get him out. He was one of those guys that didn’t necessarily love being there early to work at 10:30 [a.m.] for practice, but when practice was over at 1 [p.m.], he was on the floor for another 45 minutes. He wasn’t an early riser, but once he got going, he really enjoyed the process of going out there and working on his craft.”