DCZards wrote:payitforward wrote:First & most important: Rui has played 141 minutes so far this season. There is no conclusion to be drawn from 141 minutes. Period. One good 30-minute outing would make him look terrific so far. One lousy 30-minute outing would make him look awful so far.
That said, no, he has not been "solid thus far." Some things are up, some things are down -- as you'd expect with small number of minutes -- overall the numbers are down not up. This is not criticism; it's just fact.
His defensive rebounding is up. But his offensive rebounding is down. Still, overall his rebounding is up. Then again, overall, his scoring is down -- points slightly up but on more FGAs/FTAs, so his EFG% is at a career low & so is his TS%.
There are no conclusions -- zero, zip -- from these facts, because the minutes are so few. But they are facts all the same, & so far Rui hasn't shown anything special overall. In fact, so far -- in minutes too few to extrapolate from -- he's having his worst season yet. No doubt it'll get better.
Still, it's nice to see that he's made 7 of the 19 3-point shots he's tried. & it's nice as well to see that his defensive rebound numbers have jumped significantly. It's just that it doesn't work to ignore his having gone 19-43 on 2-point shots (.442 -- by far his worst level so far). Or to ignore his offensive rebounds having fallen by 50% from last year (after having fallen 50% last year compared to his rookie year).
What does this mean? As I've pointed out, it means nothing. Nothing at all.
Above all, it doesn't mean that so far Rui has been solid. He hasn't.
"...not everything that counts can be counted.”
-Albert Einstein
Honestly, Zards... I didn't write anything negative about Rui, I want him to succeed.
It's absolutely true that there are many things that count about Rui Hachimura that can't be counted.
Only... those things are not about basketball, because basketball occurs entirely, 100%, within a framework that is precisely about counting -- & nothing else. It's divided into games which are counted in minutes, & which are either won or lost based on counting. The universe Einstein helped us understand isn't divided into games with scores. Most of life isn't for that matter.
But, basketball is: so what a player does over some set of minutes counts. Because it contributes to that final count: that final score: either a win or a loss.
If you can point to something Rui does that cannot be counted but which nonetheless contributes to that final count, that final score, feel free to mention it.
But, if you mention that "Rui is shooting the 3 well," that's about something that "can be counted." Which means that it's relevant to point out that, overall, NO, Rui is not shooting well; he's shooting worse than he ever has. On the plus side, it's only 141 minutes -- count 'em, that's all there are -- so, as I wrote, no conclusions can be drawn.
What we can say, however, is that, so far, no, Rui has not been solid. Not yet.
