Rui Hachimura Discussion: Clipper

Rui is looking like the odd man out. I still think he would be good off the bench and he's done nothing wrong per se but the fit doesn't look great right now.

His jumper is nice and it's a plus having a big dude at 3 with gravity at it's harder to close out on a guy with size but his defense is bad and he has a lot of brain farts. Unlike a guy like Smart it isn't matched or exceed by a bunch of wow what effort and where did you pull that defensive play out of your a** moves to make up for it.

Basically Rui needs to be surrounded by high IQ, good defenders, with good motors but the Lakers have 3 stars who need that as well.
You can already see what's happening the second half of games - Laravia, Smart, Gabe, and Hayes are taking all the critical second-half minutes. JJ is is doing a good job with these lineups with in-game corrections but the Lakers are starting with their hands tied behind their backs, particularly on defense with Rui as a starter right now

 

yeah, the case is pretty close to closed on this particular issue, right? most of us foresaw this in the summer, so it's a bit strange that we're still playing around with it at this point.

i feel like rui will understand if he moves to the bench and still plays about the same number of minutes, right?

it's got to be an interpersonal thing--lots of talk about how rui just does what we ask all the time, seems like a genuinely good guy, etc.

i just wonder if it's even worse if we wait until we start actually losing games to make the shift--then it looks like we're blaming rui for the losses.

 

I still don’t understand why ALL the defensive issues are Rui’s fault.
Please provide the actual data on this because when he’s paired with the right players, he’s not the black hole that he’s painted out to be.
Defense is played AS A TEAM.
Is a one of weaker defenders? Yes, but just replacing him will not solve all of our defensive problems.

 

I don’t think it’s his fault. The issue is LeBron and Rui are both best at PF on defense and we need a proper wing/POA defender with that unit. I don’t see it so much as a knock on Rui. Just a difficult fit with a 40+ year old Lebron.

 

It's a double whammy - Rui is a bad defender and his presence is taking a away a spot for a wing defender. What he does bring in defense is duplicative as both Lebron and Luka are PF types on D. So it's the lack of a PO wing defender and having Rui being a weak defender is the problem IMO.

 

It's not Rui per se, it's actually a combination of all of our guys not being slotted correctly. AR is decent at chasing, but he becomes the POA guy, Luka who is relatively smart defensively man on man and on rotations becomes the chaser, Lebron who is best as a help defender becomes a wing stopper and Rui who is probably better suited as a post defender has to also be a wing stopper/chaser. And defensively he just isn't that switched on.

What's better is finding a POA defender and a wing stopper and playing them depending on the matchup.

POA
Reaves - chaser
Luka - help defender
Lebron - help defender
Ayton - rim protector

If they have a strong wing then bring in the wing defender for the POA.

I'm not ready to throw Rui out just yet though, when Lebron or Luka aren't there, Rui picks up some of their scoring slack. He is also a terrifically efficient scorer and finisher. We need that moving forward. If we can keep him at 18m per, it's a no brainer in my opinion.

 

We have a wing stopper- his name is The Vandalorian.
Everyone now considers him trash when I’m fact, he changes the complexion of a game all on his own.

 

Yeah the complexion of the game definitely does change when Vando comes in, he kills the Lakers offense. If you want the Lakers not to be able to score and lose perfect player

 

Yeah, I think the narrative that “he kills” the offense is way overblown.

 

When you say complexion, do you mean playing 4 on 5?

 

Yes, you got my point!

 

i just assumed "changing the complexion" was a sirronism.

 

I feel validated

 

Great minds think alike.

 

I honestly don't know what to say against this stuff anymore - the idea of Vando and I get it it's easy to root for the guy who hustles and plays D. Hell that's how my old a** plays basketball now.

But what none of these posts ever acknowledge is just how bad Vando is on offense - he can't shoot 3, he can't midrange, he's got bad hands so you can't trust him as the roll man, he's got no touch around the rim, and he's not a lob threat. You simply cannot play him with Luka as Luka offense needs a guy who is a lob threat or can hit 3's otherwise you're going to allow the defense to bottle him. Then where does he get minutes on the bench? He can't play with Hayes whose outplaying his contract and is a good backup C. Add in the Lakers defense his best attribute on ball defense gets negated because the Lakers play a switching defense you get a guy who just doesn't have as much defensive impact as people assume he does and is maybe the worst offensive player in the league.

This is not theoretical - JJ gave him time and in his time he had the worst +/- of any player against two mediocre teams before he got benched. This is did NOT happend in a vacuum or JJ's didn't try. This is the 3rd NBA coach who doesn't what to do with Vando. NBA defenses are too good now to have guys like Vando unless i guess you're the Steph/Durant Warrior juggernauts. Time to move on Vando - it's important for the team as you're not going to depend on this guy for any minutes in the regular or post season the way he has played.

 

This was in the comments - mean, not really fair, but I laughed hard

 

He's gotta go to the bench.

We have to wait until there's a losing streak, hard to justify starting lineup changes when you're winning at this rate.

Starting is best for him, BUT what's best for him isn't what's best for the team. There's no energy or pop coming with him in that lineup. Also as the 5th option in that lineup, I don't think we're getting the most out of him offensively.

Have him sub for Bron at the 6/7 minute marker. Give him more minutes when Luka sits. And spacing wise, I think you could afford a few Vando at C and Rui at PF minutes.

I'm team start Smart. He's the defensive coordinator and tone setter on the floor (you can start him and still be careful with his minutes). shouldn't be climbing out of holes with the starting group. Buha keeps reading off the unit data in each of his pods and it's ugly.