Rui Hachimura

[dckingsfan]

I don't have a problem with Rui taking that midrange shot. It's an aspect of his offensive arsenal that needs to be developed and utilized. Folks used to criticize Beal for taking too many midrange shots now it's a key piece of his offensive game.

I do agree that the infrequent touches is a problem for Rui. Hard for any player to get into a rhythm offensively in a situation like that.

I don’t mind that midranger, he just had a really bad tendency to fade on it a lot.

I think the key for Rui will be both getting better at the 3 and gaining confidence in it - so he stops passing up open 3's in favor of contested long 2's. And when he does pass up open 3's, don't settle for long 2's - go aggressively all the way to the hoop. He'll get some blocked, but he'll also draw more fouls. I thought his aggressive drives to the hoop was the best part of his game in college.

This. He needs to get it to at least .380 and that is going to be tough. Or maybe the knee is affecting his shot? His FT% is down as well.

On the defensive end, I think he will be "fine" when the knee heals. He seems to play best when he is assigned tough players to guard and doesn't have to worry about rebounding and help defense. I think I would assign him to guard the best wing every night and leave it at that.

But no consistent 3 point shot and he is going to continue to struggle.

[Ruzious]

I don’t mind that midranger, he just had a really bad tendency to fade on it a lot.

I think the key for Rui will be both getting better at the 3 and gaining confidence in it - so he stops passing up open 3's in favor of contested long 2's. And when he does pass up open 3's, don't settle for long 2's - go aggressively all the way to the hoop. He'll get some blocked, but he'll also draw more fouls. I thought his aggressive drives to the hoop was the best part of his game in college.

This. He needs to get it to at least .380 and that is going to be tough. Or maybe the knee is affecting his shot? His FT% is down as well.

On the defensive end, I think he will be "fine" when the knee heals. He seems to play best when he is assigned tough players to guard and doesn't have to worry about rebounding and help defense. I think I would assign him to guard the best wing every night and leave it at that.

But no consistent 3 point shot and he is going to continue to struggle.

One thing Rui is really good at is transition offense. But his half-court offense has been terrible lately. The potential is there; it's just he's got to do it - and with consistency. He and Gafford are thriving in running the court. And Rui can handle the ball - much like Avdija - on the break - though he doesn't have Deni's passing ability - or the ability to stop and pop off the break. Deni and Rui on the break is fun. Deni and Rui in half court... needs a lot of work.

[tontoz]

At least this year he will have a normal off-season and training camp. Covid has probably hurt his progress a bit.

[nate33]

I think the key for Rui will be both getting better at the 3 and gaining confidence in it - so he stops passing up open 3's in favor of contested long 2's. And when he does pass up open 3's, don't settle for long 2's - go aggressively all the way to the hoop. He'll get some blocked, but he'll also draw more fouls. I thought his aggressive drives to the hoop was the best part of his game in college.

This. He needs to get it to at least .380 and that is going to be tough. Or maybe the knee is affecting his shot? His FT% is down as well.

On the defensive end, I think he will be "fine" when the knee heals. He seems to play best when he is assigned tough players to guard and doesn't have to worry about rebounding and help defense. I think I would assign him to guard the best wing every night and leave it at that.

But no consistent 3 point shot and he is going to continue to struggle.

One thing Rui is really good at is transition offense. But his half-court offense has been terrible lately. The potential is there; it's just he's got to do it - and with consistency. He and Gafford are thriving in running the court. And Rui can handle the ball - much like Avdija - on the break - though he doesn't have Deni's passing ability - or the ability to stop and pop off the break. Deni and Rui on the break is fun. Deni and Rui in half court... needs a lot of work.

Good point.

I maintain high confidence that Rui will pan out to be a good pro. Right now, he's only mediocre. He does his job, but he really can't do much more. But that's still not bad for a 2nd year player. What I like is that he is an equal or better athlete to his matchup every single night. He is never outclassed by his counterpart. There's a reason why he is 3rd on the team in minutes played by a mile. Brooks trusts him because he can do his job. You may not get much exceptional out of Rui, but you don't really have to worry about him screwing things up either.

He'll get better over time.

[payitforward]

Long PIF ramble

Yo. I made a short, specific comparison that was about role within a team, in reply to Nate's own post about that very thing.

I love discussion. But you're not discussing. You're going off on a soapbox and barely even paying attention to the person you're supposedly talking to.

If you want to quote me, great - do it when you're talking with me. If you want to write a wall of text about something else, also great. Don't at me.

Edit: That last part came out more aggressively than I intended. It's all good, just a personal pet peave about tagging.

No worries. I hope you'll forgive me, but I don't remember what post I was responding to, nor what I said in response. I'll go take a look.

[payitforward]

Two years into his career and Rui is already the most scrutinized, compared, praised, criticized, doubted player in the history of the Bullets/Wizards franchise.

It is strange, isn't it?

I'm sure you remember the heat Brad Beal got the first 3-4 years of his career. I recall a multi-post exchange about how he could not be a good player, because his neck was too short!

The short neck deal was regarding ex Wiz GREAT Trevor Booker really playing bigger than his height - because his shoulders were higher than other players his height. Remember that one poster who used to insist Booker was a great player? Who was that guy?

No, if I remember rightly the short neck was good for Booker but bad for Beal. Of course, this was in the old days, well before the Hip Bend Era.

As to Trevor Booker, no one ever said he was "a great player." But, I said -- & am happy to repeat it -- that he was a good player. What these days we call "a high level role player," though I don't remember people using that phrase regularly before a couple of years ago.

[montestewart]

Discussion of the length of Rui's neck continued here