Few more numbers to go along with that Shooting with supreme confidence right now. No hesitation. He takes it from anyone, I'm expecting it to drop. It's fun to see a shooter hit like this. Melo-lite out there. JJ gave him props for his defense too My biggest gripes this season are the rebounds and then when we're shorthanded he doesn't always rise to the role we need him to fill. There's been games he'll give us 16, but we really need 24. If he can level up defensively, i'm more ok with the lower rebounding numbers.
Rui’s shooting has been incredible so far this season and was a highlight last year too. I’ve been frustrated with him for his deficiencies on D and rebounding but the bottom line is I think he’s too good to let go at his contract and we won’t get enough back for him in a trade. Probably best to re-up him and try to trade the expirings Gabe and Maxi plus a pick/Knecht. Rui is our best spot up shooter and he’s also got the deadly mid range. Guy is a bucket and we’ll need that.
Do it again Jake, as a starter .... 20+ points & hot shooting. And we will need to see Adou Thiero in the rotation off the bench finally? Who starts for Smart if he's out?
I’m surprised that JJ hasn’t run more sets to get Rui open looks at the basket. Milk the hot hand until the cow runs dry!!!
yeah, you figure 2nd night of a b2b @milwaukee with giannis is an L. why risk anything? let's keep luka and austin's minutes down, too, if we're getting spanked.
Rui defensive metrics have been bad this year. Maybe one reason despite not having Smart Lakers defense against Bucks was so good?
yeah, i give up. in the early going, the lakers and lots of other teams are winning these shorthanded games (we were on the wrong side of that in atlanta).
Rui needs to improve his defense fast. His fit with the starters isn't great now with Lebron back and with the lack of POA defender cant' afford him to be so lost out there. He's not going to like it but he probably will do better off the bench if JJ is willing to call plays him for him consistently to get him shots
I enjoyed the game most when he stopped playing with the starters and Smart was in. Something has to give, that starting lineup does not work defensively, we were bleeding points to the Jazz. I don’t see why he can’t come of the bench for Bron or Luka, first guy off the bench with the green light to score.
I was resistant to it earlier but now that Lebron is finally back it looks like that needs to happen.
to me there's just no way to defend modern nba offenses with our preferred starting lineup. just zero speed out there defensively. even one speedy guy would help, though we probably need two.
The primary argument in favor of continuing to start Rui seems to be that he'll get upset and play worse if he doesn't start. Frankly, for me Rui isn't a good enough player to care about that. That's the kind of thing you care about with your stars and pseudo-stars, not your role players. If Rui is going to pout about coming off the bench, ship him out. There is no shortage of guys who would jump at the chance to be spoon-fed corner threes by Luka, LeBron and Austin. But I don't actually think Rui would react like that this time if we moved him to the bench. Last time it was more understandable; he was clearly the better fit next to LeBron and AD, played really well in the 2023 playoffs and signed a nice extension in the offseason. I also think him playing worse off the bench back then had a lot to do with the fact that we didn't have a ton of playmaking on the roster. We had LeBron, Austin who wasn't as good then, and DLo who was so up and down. Now that we can have at least one, and maybe two, of Luka, LeBron and a better version of Austin out there at all times, I think Rui would look a lot better coming off the bench than he did before.
Another advanced metric which really hates Rui's defense so far this season. Looks like the dataset which use the Synergy motion tracking plus his lack of rebounding would be my guess why it's bad. Two recent examples - Bucks game where he didn't play(defense was solid) and the Lebron debut game where the defense was awful with him in there are likely big drivers.
