Rui Hachimura 2.0

[FAH1223]

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[JWizmentality]

Look I love Rui I wanted to keep him but wait till the Lakers are forced to pay him 16+ and he has another meltdown or misses another 30 games with a weird lower body injury.

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Not the flex you think it is

[Dat2U]

Rui avg like 9 ppg with the Lakers. The playoff breakout is nice and should get him paid (good for him!) but I'm glad the Wiz won't be forking over $20 mil per to watch Rui play like a journeyman the majority of the time.

[nate33]

Rui avg like 9 ppg with the Lakers. The playoff breakout is nice and should get him paid (good for him!) but I'm glad the Wiz won't be forking over $20 mil per to watch Rui play like a journeyman the majority of the time.

Agreed. Rui is definitely playing well in the playoffs and I'm happy for him. But I wouldn't want to be in position where I felt that I needed to match the best free agency offer for him because I think he will get overpaid. Rui at $12M a year is reasonable, but if he costs $15-20M, that's a contract we would regret.

[NatP4]

Rui avg like 9 ppg with the Lakers. The playoff breakout is nice and should get him paid (good for him!) but I'm glad the Wiz won't be forking over $20 mil per to watch Rui play like a journeyman the majority of the time.

Agreed. Rui is definitely playing well in the playoffs and I'm happy for him. But I wouldn't want to be in position where I felt that I needed to match the best free agency offer for him because I think he will get overpaid. Rui at $12M a year is reasonable, but if he costs $15-20M, that's a contract we would regret.

He’s in a good situation to get paid. Doesn’t have to be good at defense, doesn’t have to play like a starter, doesn’t have to make plays. All he has to do is come in and shoot open shots. We know Rui can make some shots and put up some 20+ point games.

Outside of that, he’ll always be a journeyman that doesn’t move the needle much.

[prime1time]

So many bad takes in this thread. Just disappointing how anti-intellectual the level of discourse is on this board. Feels like I'm in middle school all over again.

[nate33]

So many bad takes in this thread. Just disappointing how anti-intellectual the level of discourse is on this board. Feels like I'm in middle school all over again.

What is the most that you be willing to pay to retain him? You need to have a number in your head for this to be an honest debate.

[Dat2U]

So many bad takes in this thread. Just disappointing how anti-intellectual the level of discourse is on this board. Feels like I'm in . school all over again.

I'll play along since you always go low and say unnecessary bs like your actually beyond reproach. So lets cut to it. Your a clown my guy. Why? Because your let a debate about a basketball player that you have no real connection with, become a very personal constant back & forth where you feel the constant need to defend yourself and take snarky unnecessry shots at others who may disagree and debate from a purely statistical view.

You live in this thread when Rui plays well and go ghost we he doesn't. So your right, its like school all over again because your acting just like some snot nosed middle schooler who can't stop gushing about their favorite player & can't stop bitching at the lack of repsect he gets. Grow up!

[prime1time]

So many bad takes in this thread. Just disappointing how anti-intellectual the level of discourse is on this board. Feels like I'm in . school all over again.

I'll play along since you always go low and say unnecessary bs like your actually beyond reproach. So lets cut to it. Your a clown my guy. Why? Because your let a debate about a basketball player that you have no real connection with, become a very personal constant back & forth where you feel the constant need to defend yourself and take snarky unnecessry shots at others who may disagree and debate from a purely statistical view.

You live in this thread when Rui plays well and go ghost we he doesn't. So your right, its like school all over again because your acting just like some snot nosed middle schooler who can't stop gushing about their favorite player & can't stop bitching at the lack of repsect he gets. Grow up!

Is it really that hard to just say you were wrong? LOL.

[prime1time]

"Bbbut Prime1time oNLy poSTs wHEn Rui PlAYs weLL"

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Rui, really struggled last game. 6/17 from the field 1/4 from 3. The biggest issue Rui has is that he struggles to dynamically process the game. Go back to the bubble at the end of the 2019-2020 season. Going in Rui was supposed to be the focal point. The 1st game he played well if I recall then after that it completely fell apart. In the bubble teams trapped him and mixed up the looks he saw and he just stopped functioning. That's what happened last night vs. Argentina. In a must-win game, Argentina came out with a game plan of stopping Rui and Rui just looked defeated. It reminded me of being given a riddle that frustrates you to the point that eventually you just throw your hands up in the air and give up.

Rui's at his best when the game is simple and straightforward. Give Rui the ball and ask him to beat the player in front of him, he'll know what to do. But put Rui in a situation where a defense is organized to stop him and he will struggle. Now, the fact that Rui's struggles in these moments isn't necessarily the end of the world. Currently, he's still trying to develop his skillset. He's nowhere close to worrying more about how the defense is trying to stop him but hopefully he'll get there. The promising thing for Rui is that has shown the ability to learn and figure out how to attack new situations.

As for what it means going forward, it means that we should try to limit lineups where Rui is the main offensive option. And if we do have these lineups, make sure he has shooting, so his reads are simple. Good defenses and well-coached teams will shut down Rui very easily if we put him in these situations. As for how to best use Rui right now, keep it simple for him. Floor spacer, transition/fastbreak, pick-n-pop, pick-n-roll and set plays where we can give him space to work ideally on the wing where he can pull-up for a mid-range or give a hard jab step, one dribble and get to the rim. He can also exploit switches in the low post especially when a small guard switches onto him.

Right now Rui's like a poor man's Carmelo Anthony. Hopefully, he'll eventually get to the point where he's thinking more about how defenses are trying to stop him instead of improving specific offensive skills.

[prime1time]

There are many more posts of me posting negative things about Rui. It's actually laughable that you'd resort to that line of reasoning. The issue on this board, is so many people were in the "Rui is so bad that we should tell him to stay home camp" and "Rui is not an NBA player camp" and "Rui doesn't do one positive thing" that it forces someone like to defend Hachimura. Every player has strengths and weaknesses. The real question is why were some posters on this board so obsessed with hating on Hachimura. You can try to make me the villain, but deep down your just embarassed that Rui is playing well. I was posting in this thread several weeks ago when Hachimura was struggling in LA.

The case for Rui has always been a simple one. To survive in the NBA he needs to make 3's. 27.8% from 3 during February won't get it done. At the same time, the Lakers are a team in disarray. They've completely overhauled their roster during the middle of the year. Guys have no chemistry and are figuring everything out on the fly.

And I could quote numerous more negative posts about Hachimura. As I could with everybody but let's be honest about the sad level of discourse that has been in the Hachimura thread.

This couldn’t be more wrong. Rui is terrible at everything. He doesn’t have basketball IQ, he’s not competitive, he doesn’t have a motor. He can’t see the floor. His defense is bad both individually and team. He’s a total ball stopper on offense that can make simple reads. Even when he was making 3s at an efficient rate, he was never helping his team.

Soft mentally. Washington came at him with kids gloves. He's probably feeling some type of way with the expectations on him in LA.

Anti-intellectual? Doing verbal gymnastics to prop up an inefficient, poorly performing player is not intellectualism. Its creating your own reality.

[prime1time]

There are many more posts of me posting negative things about Rui. It's actually laughable that you'd resort to that line of reasoning. The issue on this board, is so many people were in the "Rui is so bad that we should tell him to stay home camp" and "Rui is not an NBA player camp" and "Rui doesn't do one positive thing" that it forces someone like to defend Hachimura. Every player has strengths and weaknesses. The real question is why were some posters on this board so obsessed with hating on Hachimura. You can try to make me the villain, but deep down your just embarassed that Rui is playing well. I was posting in this thread several weeks ago when Hachimura was struggling in LA.

The case for Rui has always been a simple one. To survive in the NBA he needs to make 3's. 27.8% from 3 during February won't get it done. At the same time, the Lakers are a team in disarray. They've completely overhauled their roster during the middle of the year. Guys have no chemistry and are figuring everything out on the fly.

And I could quote numerous more negative posts about Hachimura. As I could with everybody but let's be honest about the sad level of discourse that has been in the Hachimura thread.

This couldn’t be more wrong. Rui is terrible at everything. He doesn’t have basketball IQ, he’s not competitive, he doesn’t have a motor. He can’t see the floor. His defense is bad both individually and team. He’s a total ball stopper on offense that can make simple reads. Even when he was making 3s at an efficient rate, he was never helping his team.

Soft mentally. Washington came at him with kids gloves. He's probably feeling some type of way with the expectations on him in LA.

Anti-intellectual? Doing verbal gymnastics to prop up an inefficient, poorly performing player is not intellectualism. Its creating your own reality.

I get vilified for posting about Hachimura, but if you were actually objective, why weren't you saying anything when all the posters were in here celebrating his demise? The hypocrisy is stunning. Quiet when the Rui haters come with their knives out, and then has the audacity to call me out. "Prime1time only comes in here when good things are happening." Hilarious! Most of the debates happen when Rui is struggling and the haters are can't wait to post. When other posters do it - including you - it's ok. But when prime1time does it, he's a clown. Hypocrisy, self-delusion, lack of objectivity, confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance makes for a witches brew of...you guessed it anti-intellectualism. The best that can be said for this board, is that it is primarily limited to Rui. A PhD student in psychology could write there thesis on the craziness that happens on on this board.

[payitforward]

I absolutely love what Rui has done in the playoffs. Nothing pleases me more than to see a young player succeed. In fact, I don't want failure for anybody trying to succeed at something he or she loves. I've got too many kids, grandkids, nephews & nieces, etc. to ever be tempted down a negative path of that kind.

For that reason, I'd love to see Rui translate these games into a new & consistently high level of production.

But that hope & positive desire on my part does not blind me to the 4 years of Rui's career so far. They are what they are, which is to say that they are defined by his production in those years -- including his production with the Lakers. & including his production in (especially the first two games of) the playoffs.

But I'm not going to define him as a player based on the series vs. Memphis. Any more than I would define Raymond Foye by the fact that he once scored 29 points in a single quarter. Any more than I would define a player, Rui or any other, by a bad game.

We can both watch Rui & see how it all turns out. If well, we can both be happy. If not, we can both be disappointed. In the meantime, it's pretty tiresome to have all discussion of Rui be dominated by your name-calling.

There is no special attitude here towards Rui as opposed to other players on this team or other teams. Why would there be? Enough already with the accusations of "hypocrisy," etc. Enough with the "witches brew" rhetoric.

I don't call you names, & I don't want to be called names, either. & I can't see why anyone else would want it. So, sure, let's continue tracking Rui. We can all be happy whenever he succeeds, but you can get to do the crowing, fair enough . Please, however, enough is enough: it's time to drop all this "hater" stuff.

[NatP4]

Rui has been totally useless tonight. Doesn’t belong on the court.

[Jay81]

Rui has been totally useless tonight. Doesn’t belong on the court.

He has nothing to bring if he isn't shooting well

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[dcstanley]

Rui missed a lot of good looks but he was a +18 after closing the 4th and playing the entire OT. His contributions via post defense on JJJ, help defense on Ja drives, and rebounding were instrumental in the Lakers picking up a victory.

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[pcbothwel]

Rui has been totally useless tonight. Doesn’t belong on the court.

He has nothing to bring if he isn't shooting well

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Always been his problem.
Be's basically Glenn Robinson, and that type of player is almost NEVER worth their 2nd contract.

[payitforward]

I don't really see any similarity between Rui & Glenn Robinson. Especially not in that quick set of his OT highlights on defense.

[Jay81]

Rui non factor tonight

[prime1time]

For a role player making 6 million dollars Hachimura's past two games have been par for the course. The Lakers don't need to Hachimura to have amazing games every night to win. He's not one of their supermax players. And yes Hachimura deserves to be on the court, because after AD and LBJ, no Laker has played better during the series. BPM of 5.7. DBPM of 1.5 (even though he doesn't play defense). 4 out of the 5 games this series Rui has been over 50% from the field. In the one game he was 2/9 he had a plus/minus of +18.