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