Rui Hachimura Discussion: Huge Buckets

Well its kind of a chicken or the egg situation because LeBron's decision will probably be impacted by what moves are available to us in the summer. If we just bring the band back together, I'm not sure he takes a pay cut to just play with the same team. At that point, maybe he does go to the Warriors to play with Steph or back to Cleveland. We need to sell him on a plan to make at least some modest improvements (i.e., we need to tamper before the moratorium like everyone else does).

 

Rui is the greatest post season shooter of all time. He isn't just great, he is a 52% shooter - and 71% on open looks. That's historically elite and it's not just this post season, we're talking 5 post seasons. Defensively, he tries alot harder in the post season too and is a +11 this year On/Off, even though we're losing 3-0 to OKC.

I'm signing Rui to 10% of the cap as our 7th man - which is about MLE money. I'm also bringing back Smart for something similar via non bird raises to 6.5m and Kennard on same non bird rights to room level money with Hayes at 4.5m. That's basically setting your whole bench alongside Adou for 38m and leaves you 160m to make the starting 5 work (10m or so goes to the deep bench guys).

I think thats an effective use of money and I'm happy for our bench to have two of the best shooters in the league (although low volume admittedly), a defensive standout in Smart, a young 3&D potential player in Adou and a decently athletic big in Hayes.

What we really need to do is figure out how to improve our starting 5.

 

i just feel like this is a MUCH bigger deal than you're suggesting, and may require moving on from current players we like.

 

Yeah, I agree. And in this case, I'm suggesting we move on from Reaves - who is one of my favourite players, Jake - who I think will become a great two way role player, Ayton - a big who I think is a top 10 center when he is on.

It's not that I'm saying we keep Rui or Kennard or Smart over these other guys. I just think that bench works and they're all rotation worthy guys.

Reaves & Ayton are rotation quality guys too, but they don't fit nearly as good with Luka & Lebron.

 

reaves is worth more than two ruis, imo, and i'm pretty sure the trade market would confirm it after we cashed reaves in for two ruis and sought a new reaves.

i think this is another fundamental disagreement. to me, lebron needs to get in where he fits in. the team is about luka, not luka/lebron. lebron will be gone sooner than you're saying, imo.

 

Yeah I agree that Reaves is worth 2x Rui's. But that's not really the point is it? It's how to best spend each salary slot when they are available. Is Rui the best use of 16m in cap space? Maybe not the best, but why are we acting like what he is doing isn't worth that slot?

We can have a completely different conversation on Reaves' salary slot and at the max 41m, I would argue that it isn't the best use and could be a negative use if he repeats this playoffs performances. I've seen various people call us the new Portland if we resign Reaves, resembling Lillard and CJ McCollum, where they win 55+ games but get bounced in the first or second round. That's not a crazy thing to say... sometimes you have to make tough decisions or even take a few steps back to move forward.

 

we don't have time nor a second path forward to move two steps backward.

 

Don't agree that there isn't any other paths, you're being close minded. Are we really trying to say that there isn't any other move out there than resigning Reaves? Let's say we go the cap route, renounce everyone and be fair so Lebron gets 20m (not a pipe dream where he takes the minimum).

How are you building a team that isn't a step back in that scenario? You have Smart, Ayton, Kennard, Hayes, Rui all as free agents and about 48m in cap space and 9m in room. Show me a team under the cap that is competitive to the point where it makes sense that we don't have a second path. This is your team without moves:

Luka / x / Bronny
Reaves / x / Knecht
x / Jake / Adou
Lebron / Vando / x
x / x / x

 

i'm open to lots of possibilities, including moving reaves. i just think people are being insanely cavalier about it, whilst neglecting that he's a UFA. first order of business is to secure the bird already in hand.

as for your scenario:

watson at 32m, ellis at 10, smart at room exception, hayes at 6 per

vando/knecht/2 1sts for herb jones and missi.

luka/jones/bronny
reaves/herb
watson/jake/25th pick (if we keep that one in the trade)
lebron/thiero
missi/hayes/vet min bruiser big

i don't think the above is likely for a few reasons, but it's no less realistic than many things i've seen, and far more than any build that involves letting reaves walk or pick a FA destination to which we can trade him.

 

After Denver's flame out, I don't think there is any chance they don't resign Watson unless you offer him the max. Cam Johnson/Braun/Gordon are the ones being moved.

I think we can get Ellis, Hayes and probably trade for Herb & Missi. But without Watson, it's not a competitive roster.

Also, I'm not sure why people are so high on Missi, he is fine, but he isn't better then Gafford.

Anyways shout out to Rui, finishes the series with 20.0 PPG 4.0 RPG 2.5 APG on 56/55/86 splits. Guy brought us back in it in the second half with his shooting.

 

Love to see Handy getting his flowers. Hey Rui, you're a FA. Maybe don't say you hate taking 3s, you just went on a historic run. If someone gives you a bag, it's for your 3 ball. Your agent is about to call you.



Rui gets reminded of his place

 

Rui Hachimura Talks Stellar 3-point Shooting Season, Upcoming Free Agency

 

People keep hyping up Walter and his big pockets and I do think it will come handy at some point, but not this summer. It's irrelevant because we have to operate under the cap restrictions.

It will only matter in following years when we are already over the cap and re-signing guys with bird rights raise our payroll over the aprons and luxury tax and that's where ownership decides. Like what happened with Caruso.

But in our current situation it matters little to none because it's virtually impossible to go above the aprons. Only way it can have an impact is signing for example Smart and Bron for like 5mil this year so we have more cap space and then next year bump them to 20 or 30 with Mark assuming the bill.

I hope we do stuff like that to circumvent the cap and have max flexibility this year to sign new guys

 

all this. we have to get to the point where we have the roster set, then walter's money can help. but we really needed him pre-aprons, when ballmer and lacob were using their money to make a mockery of the cap. biggest advantage now is just...not having the buss disadvantage (half your executives named buss or drinking buddies with a buss).

IF we operate over the cap, i'm willing to go HIGHER annually for rui, but only on shorter deals. like, if there's room under whichever apron comes into play, i'd go as high as 2/50. why? because it's tradeable in year 2 if rui has another regular season like this one that isn't followed with two weeks that worked like a concussion on the fans and media, lol.

i'll be curious to see how his agent(s?) play it. what number do they give the lakers to open FA? and then how much chicken is rob willing to play (my guess is a lot, tbh)?