Rui Hachimura Discussion: Clipper

Doesn't a S&T hard cap you? Although it hard caps the receiving team right so in this case we would be fine?
Never quite understood that one but remember always seeing hard cap mentions in S&T

Yeah, I was exactly thinking about Chicago. They need some scoring, having Giddey and Buzelis as a core opens up space for some vet scoring. Depends on their draft but it's one of the few teams I see Rui having some market

Role players are screwed nowadays when they hit the FA. Teams can only sign guys using cap space, an exception (one of 15M, 8M and 6M) and vet min. Some teams have the BAE at 5.5M.

So on cap space, most teams don't have it because everyone extends their contract nowadays, so usually only tanking rebuilding teams have it (hence why we are in a good position). Only us, Brooklyn, Chicago will have +20M cap space. Atlanta might too if they don't re-sign Kuminga or CJ. I expect them to and certainly aren't signing Rui over Kuminga.
Most teams have the full MLE at 15M and the BAE at 5.5.

So for Rui, either Chicago signs him or he's looking at best to MLE offers.
Pretty sure no team will rush to spend the MLE on Rui, so he's probably looking at remaining a FA for the first few days and see which team has the MLE left after the market dries out. That's his best shot, imo. Also comes with the risk of being left out and only get the vet min.
I think he has value in the league but is probably out of contending teams for MLE money as he has proved he can't be that relied on. Maybe the teams in between bite

For us, it means he's probably an afterthought. We will do our business and if at some point we're left with fewer options and some cap space or exception available, we may go to him as last resort.
Having his bird rights serve us nothing because we will have to renounce him to free up cap space, he has a 27 million cap hold

Getting the vet min is not out of question. Gary Trent Jr or Kelly Oubre had similar careers and reached that point.
Only caveat is that there may be teams interested in him a little bit more due to commercial gains from being from Japan

 

I don’t know what money/exceptions they will have available in the summer, but I could see the Spurs being a fit for Rui. Barnes’ contract expires this summer, Rui can just slot in as a younger version of the same role.

 

S&T hardcap is at first apron and only for incoming S&T, not outgoing.

but again, the timing of an outgoing S&T for us has to be early in FA, before we'd renounce rui's rights. this is why i think he's just walking unless the market is truly zilch, in which case we might bring him back on a vet min.

 

Yeah wouldn't shock me that one either. They have the big MLE (15M) and BAE (5.5M). They have the guards and center position well covered so they should spend it in a couple of forwards

 

Rui does not seem like a spurs like player at all

 

He's not far I think. He is a low profile guy, bodes well in San Antonio. He's quite similar to Barnes, I like that comp

 

low motor, dumb player, poor defender is the opposite of a typical Spurs pickup

 

Congratulations Rui for breaking the Lakers all time best Season percentage in 3PT FGs 44.3 narrowly beating Space Cadets’ 44.1. Enjoy it while it lasts

 

On a team friendly deal, like AR, for the love of being a Laker now (as he stated pretty much) and building a deeper team to support the stars we have and a chance to compete and win for the immediate future.

 

I prefer he goes somewhere

 

He who?? Luke. AR. Why?

 

Thought you were talking about Rui

 

No was responding to Cookie.

 

Perfect Power Forward game except for rebounds lol but good steal and blocks number @5

 

Solid game.

The blocks were impressive



But the rebounding has to be better. For rebounding and limiting TOs to be such a point of emphasis during the week, you can't walk away with only 2 boards. Kennard should not be a better rebounder than you... just compare the physical profiles.

Also want him to sharpen his angles on passes to Bron. Bron had a couple great seals and he was ready to strangle Rui over missing him or throwing the wrong kind of pass.

 

He was great on defense, great to see! His midJ is elite. Not very good, really elite. It's crazy how often it goes in and always so smooth. He would be outstanding 20 years ago

There were a couple of plays where you see why he has a lower ceiling. First he makes a bad pass to Bron that gets deflected out of bounds. Bron was furious. Then Bron finds Rui under the basket, where Rui fakes the layup with Sheppard contesting, only to get blocked by Sengun who has the time to recover. How on earth you fake a shot with Sheppard on you? He had a clean path to the basket

Right after, he gets a wide open 3 with Sheppard closing in and he fakes it again, resulting in a worse shot after.

It may sound nitpicking but he just lacks killer instinct and resolve. He's already below average on 'the little things' so it hurts even more these mistakes in the area where he's the strongest - scoring.

It's unfortunate because he has the frame to be a very good player in today's NBA. Good size and built, really great in shot making, can space the floor. He just never developed good enough overall skills to complement his game

In any case, he's instrumental in this series and I hope he continues to play well in what I hope is his last games with us