Rui Hachimura Discussion: Huge Buckets

According to some insiders from B/R Rui and Knecht aren't going to be traded

Competing executives have also told B/R that the Lakers (at least to date) have shown no interest in discussing trades that include Rui Hachimura or Dalton Knecht (or, obviously, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, Bronny James, etc.). The two recently acquired players (Finney Smith and Milton) cannot be aggregated in trade before the February 6 deadline—taking Milton out of the equation.

 

this gives a sense of who we're probably looking at. if we're only offering gabe and the minimums, we're looking at valanciunas and lower.

i'm good with keeping rui and knecht.

 

That doesn't preclude Kessler though. He only makes $3 million, so we would only need to use Wood or JHS for salary. Just depends how much draft capital we're willing to offer. I would do Pincus' proposal of the 2029 pick and remove protections on 2027 in a heartbeat. That won't be enough. Adding in the 2031 pick is too much for most people. Somewhere in between is the answer, adding in more 2nd rounders or pick swaps. Lakers should make a generous but in between offer and play hardball saying that's the best offer we'll ever give, and it will only go down in the future, as LeBron gets older. Which makes sense, since Kessler's value to us would be less in the summer or next year with LeBron declining and eventually retiring. A deal like this should be possible, as nobody else is going to give more for Kessler, but it still seems unlikely.

 

if i'm ainge i want knecht in any kessler trade. i try to get a pick on top of it but will settle for a lotto-protected swap.

but i've never fully understood ainge, tbh. he seems to value picks more than i do. i know he got the picks that became tatum and brown, but he also tried that strategy for a long time without much success (and it took trades of picks to finally get that team over the hump).

be curious to see what utah ends up doing even if it doesn't involve us. i really think small market teams should consider prospects as much or moreso than picks.

okc getting sga changed their future. toronto getting quickley and barrett instead of 4 protected firsts was probably a win.

 

He can try, but why should we budge? I hear your point on why a Knecht/Kessler swap is fair at the surface level, but it’s clear Kessler isn’t in their future plans, so I don’t see the point in caving into that demand.

Remove the protection on 2027, protected 2029 1st, and heck, I’d toss is one of this year’s 2nds for optics. If someone outbids that, I can live with it.

Would love to see Knecht grow with us, but if we did trade for a star down the road, most of those deals include at least one young promising talent along with draft picks.

 

when you're the gm of a franchise that accepts tanking, you can wait out anybody. i'm constantly trying to remind people here that rob's job isn't ainge's job. ainge can wait. ainge could let kessler walk for nothing and not fear for his job security. because nobody cares about utah. that's why he gets to sit back and name is price on stuff. same with presti in okc, and honestly, lots and lots of general managers in the nba.

so, probably nobody outbids that pick package (assuming we offer it), but ainge can afford to wait and we can't. he knows it.

 

Not a good night for Rui..he needs to get it together here soon.

 

So purple glasses on again if somehow we could land Kessler with combo of protection taken off 2027 pick and one more 1st rounder no protection, and Rui instead and hang onto AR, DK and Max and have Kessler with AD …. that IS kind of doing the very best we could do for both the here and now and avoid the literal “tanking” rebuild so many seem in a hurry for. Those are really nice young players not having hit their prime yet …. you don’t have to hope to get lucky to draft even younger one year at a time and then wait on to become as good as these guys will be. And cherry on top if against the odds Vando resurrects from the grave to be effective again and we can somehow hang onto DFS. Personally I feel landing one of these superstars couple years from now is pipe anyway and then you have to give up most of these guys and the depth anyway like we did for AD. With NO 2nd superstar paired with this unicorn star at that point like we had in LeBron to overcome the loss of the extremely lucky in the 4 -5 years of lotto drafted talent. I’m of a mind pretty much F*** those picks and keep and develop the best of the players we have now and get Kessler. We don’t need an OLD past prime 7 footer. We need a solid defense playing strong 7 footer to deal with the old guard of the beasts PLUS the influx of the new ones. Wemby, Edey, the guy in Portland, Lively, OKC’s guy …. etc.

 

I think the Bulls are just holding out for the best offer, i can't say that I blame them for that.

 

Just no motor and in addition his defensive rotations just scrambled up in his head. He's a good rotation player but just not a guy you can count on day in and day out. You're good if he's in your top 9 man rotation but not in your top 6

 

i like him for 20-25mpg depending on matchups. i actually think he's still improving, tbh. maybe not as fast as we need it, though.

 

The physical tools but lacking motor/BBIQ/physicality guys are always the most frustrating. He's almost 27, so he probably is what he is at this point.

 

i disagree. he came to the game later than lots of guys who make it here, so the foundations for hoop iq growth are slower to develop. i feel like rui still has places he can realistically improve. we saw serious growth in his pull up/face up game, as well as his off-ball cutting. he'll never be able to contain dribble penetration from elite guards or anything, but i always point to marcus morris as the theory. it took him a while to find the ways that he could impact winning, but he found them and did it for a while. rui's not a dummy, off the floor, and it's clear he works hard. i get why jj likes him, despite his flaws.

that said, i'd obviously be open to an upgrade, for various reasons. primarily, he fits neither a short nor a long-term strategy of team building right now.

 

Two rebounds in Texas. Two rebounds in 54 minutes of play. Nope. That ain't it. He's not a rebounder, which I'll never understand at his size how you don't get more accidental rebounds than that. There was a line in Varsity Blues, I think by Tweeder on the hook and ladder play they run in practice when Billy Bob is doubting how successful it will " 'Oh, a ball. I'm gonna catch it.' That's all." That's what comes to mind when thinking about Rui's struggles on the glass.

I already mentioned it in the DFS thread, but I think now is the time to make that switch. Rui will have a bigger role filling that DLO scoring role on the bench. Going against backups defensively will be easier on him too. Bring him in as soon as Bron goes to the bench. It just makes too much sense and like when we moved DLO to the bench, makes it easier rotation wise if we trade him. His offense might take a dip if he doesn't buy in, but we can't cater to the 4th/5th option at this point in the season.

 

I agree with the sentiment. That said, if it affects his buy in and on court play, which it has seemed to in the past, then just let him start and pull him after 4 min. DFS can still close and play 30+ min, most of it with the starters, and Rui can play 20-30 min, whatever is warranted. I outlined a simple rotation previously, it shouldn't be hard if JJ wants to do it.

 

Rui needs a motor and Jax has too much of one. If you put Rui and Jax into one player who could have the dumbest bbIQ great player in NBA history.

 

Rui lives to start another day