Playoff Rui = the wing 3 & D player we're trying to sign this summer...if we could count on him to maintain this.
It’s right there in 52 years’s post you quoted. All the hard a**es around here who “claim” they couldn’t care less about the regular season.
He was straight up on fire last night in the first half. He couldn't miss! He's been playing really well over this post season. I know his rebounding numbers are bad, but his D and his shooting have been excellent. 3 and D plus the mid-range. Not bad at all on his contract.
hard player to value he had 2 big brain farts on defense (why the f*** do you go under a screen against Reed??) that cost the Lakers 5 points. Just a very tough player to evaluate
Why does LeBron have 8 TOs? Same type of question. Nobody plays perfect games. Except very rarely I guess. 4 seasons in the playoffs Rui has stepped up and shot 43% from deep for us, plus the midrange and improving D and even ups his rebounds to 6 per game. Yet he's chicken liver around here that few mention wanting to keep. All for these OTHER 3 and D guys we have NO guarantee they can still shoot after becoming a Laker. And 3 other players the emphasis should be on to somehow replace and upgrade with PREFERABLY young, not top dollar under utilized on other teams' somewhat 3 and more D players. Or Pelinka scores with trade(s) and picks for one or two higher dollar starter level 3 and D in place of Vando, Dalton and Maxi.
i COULD NOT BELIEVE that choice when it happened. literally stood up off the couch before the shot was released.
I was getting frustrated with his second half brick after brick after brick laying. That being said, he was awesome in the first and we aren’t going to get someone to replace him that can score like he does, but plays lock down defense, for less than $30 million a year- that’s even if we can and would trade two firsts to get him.
How good was the screen? Just asking. Would it have been possible for big guy like him to get through it in time without fouling the screener and better contest the shot?
If we’re only a good 3&D wing away, we should be competitive with OKC in the second series with Rui playing like this. Either he can fill this role and we consider bringing him back, or he doesn’t play well and isn’t the 3&D we need. If he plays well and we lose bad, then we’re further away than we thought. Should be a good litmus test.
^^^ more fair than all the grass is greener / Rui = chopped liver takes, with what he has done last 3 years and is still doing in the playoffs for all the regular season who cares? types everywhere (and no offense to them of course). My take is still for everyone including me that agrees we need high quality depth after the starters ... that Rui is exactly that, if LeBron comes back. But by ALL means indeed Rob, do that thing you do from left field and get us even better 3nD players, especially at POA to add to that DEPTH, using Vando, Dalton and Maxi contracts, picks and some more Jedi mind tricks.
How much of that is Rui’s defence (that has certainly been better than it was in the regular season) and Houston just having really bad shooters? I’d say the improved defence helps but Houston aren’t doing themselves any favours with not being able to hit a barn door.
Obviously both, but even if it were mainly due to Houston, Rui having the best DFG% on our team is still saying something. If Luka & Austin are 99% and we magically add another POA 3&D player, then yes this would be correct. But I don't see many people saying that we're only 1 3&D player away. I see people saying that we're 2 3&D players away (1 POA + 1 wing). People want Watson or similar for the wing 3&D guy. The premise is that if Rui is the Watson wing 3&D guy, then we can focus on getting the POA 3&D guy this summer. So even if all of the above happens before the next round vs OKC, we still wouldn't have that 2nd POA 3&D guy.
Tari Eason, Peyton Watson, Keon Ellis, some posters of this site’s favorite 3&D replacement for Rui, care to compare numbers now in the play offs
Rui never has been the problem. We have outlined why over and over again. Better POA defender(who can guard the speedsters) and better rim protector who doesn’t disappear every other night.
rui was actually pretty bad this year. i like him, but i'm pretty wary of mle money on a guy who plays the same position on defense as luka (and lebron) and is substantially worse at it. this is ellis's down year: eason: watson: watson's actually the one that gives me pause due to analytics, and yes, the numbers are just part of it, but i promise these numbers match a lot of your eye-tests, too. anyway, glad rui's been playing well in the playoffs (again, actually!), but i don't know how much you can pay for a guy who has such negligible impact on such a regular basis. if we field a full roster of guys who show up in the playoffs but generally suck for 82 games, we'll be in the play-in and against okc and SA in round 1.