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Rui Hachimura Discussion: Huge Buckets

Discussion in 'Lakers Discussion' started by Kobe Bryant 8, Jan 23, 2023.

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fabfourlakers - Lakers Starter -

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unbelievable trade given that it's essentially Nunn and two 2nd round picks (one of them is a swap in 2028).

He doesn't need to be one of our best players in order for this trade to be a win - he just needs to be better than whatever the hell NUNN was bringing us.

It's also on the coaching staff to PLAY him. So I hope Ham doesn't roll out their ridiculous 3-guard lineups anymore as there's really NO reason for them now.

I love this trade - Rui is such a big pickup in terms of talent, asset management, and just NEED for a big wing on this roster.

Hats off to Rob Pelinka on this - let's give credit where credit is due. He dropped the ball on literally every trade before this one...let's hope this is the beginning of Rob making a huge comeback

fabfourlakers, Jan 23, 2023

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Love love LOVE this trade. Rob knocked this one out of the park. Big up side if he can get his 3pt shot back to what it was last season, young, and we can actually resign him.

This was a big win to correct the imbalance in our lineups.

Barnstable, Jan 23, 2023

#22

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I’m absolutely stoked about this trade for Rui. He’s exactly the piece we’ve been missing. Sorta makes up for the blunder of trading Kuz. Now we can at least competently match up with teams like New Orleans, the snakes and C Bags. Good job Rob!

CarolinaLakerFan, Jan 23, 2023

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Youkoso Samurai...

gcclaker, Jan 23, 2023

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The Rock said: ↑

From his draft profile in 2019

https://nbadraftroom.com/rui-hachimura/

https://www.nbadraft.net/players/rui-hachimura/
Click to expand...

OK …. I’m too easy per @KareemMagic45

LTLakerFan, Jan 23, 2023

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Weezy, Jan 23, 2023

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Perfect sized, tweener, huge wing or PF, not over the top in any aspect but not bad either. They say he can disappear on D for lapses which isn't good but maybe Ham's culture can change that. Really need him to perform on that side.

Shooting is what it says it is and it's intriguing. He is 35%-36% career but last season was connecting at a 45% clip which is outstanding even for only 3 attempts. Why the increase over previous seasons I don't know (maybe because they got rid of Westbrook). Off to a rough start this season shooting .337 from distance, hopefully, the attention LBJ and AD draw will give him some wide-opens. Not missing Nunn.

Current (Jan 2023) scout report from Sportsforcaster.com is promising:

SCOUTING REPORT

Unlike most top-10 picks these days, he spent three seasons in the NCAA ranks to fully hone his skills. The first Japanese player ever selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, he has an ideal body for the power forward position at the highest level. However, his athleticism make him an option on the wing as well and he can defend against much smaller players. Needs to continue to develop his outside shot in order to stretch the floor in the NBA and create more opportunities for both himself and his teammates. His maturity is off the charts and his demeanor is perfect for the basketball pioneer that he is.

Long Range Potential: Talented, unique forward with good upside.
Click to expand...

https://sportsforecaster.com/nba/p/227319/Rui_Hachimura

Alcindor, Jan 23, 2023

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PurPle n GoLd 1, Jan 23, 2023

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Zach Harper (Athletic) gives us a C+ for the deal

The Lakers are undoubtedly upgrading their roster with this move. Nunn has never been a real factor for them, and Hachimura’s talent is superior. But there are a few questions that pop up about this deal.

Is this a greater position of need for the Lakers? The Anthony Davis health concerns will always make this a position of need. Having Thomas Bryant back and thriving means Davis can play more at the four to preserve his body when he’s back, and there is history/familiarity with Bryant and Hachimura (former teammates) playing alongside each other. It wasn’t necessarily a lucrative pairing for the Wizards, but it wasn’t that bad after Hachimura’s rookie season (roughly minus-1.2 per 100 possessions).

The Lakers have played a lot of Wenyen Gabriel (in decent minutes) and Juan Toscano-Anderson at the four. Replacing those minutes with Hachimura is an upgrade. As long as he’s healthy. He’s missed 95 games in his three and a half seasons in the NBA. If you’re able to play him next to LeBron and Davis at the same time, that’s a potentially good trio of forwards on offense.

Is Hachimura actually good? This is the real question. How much does he bring to the table? We know he can score because that’s what he does. Hachimura is just under 17 points per 36 minutes for his career. He’s a good free-throw shooter, makes shots around the rim and can knock down a midrange jumper. He flashed a highly improved 3-point shot last season, but his other three seasons beyond the arc have been mediocre. He’s not much of a defender, but if he can help get this team from 19th in offense to somewhere in the upper half of the league, that’ll be a nice pickup.

Have the Lakers backed themselves into a corner of needing to re-sign him? The Lakers have a bunch of second-round picks to move, so it’s not like they’re completely bare when it comes to that area of the trade-asset pantry. Including the Chicago 2023 pick could land in the 31-45 range pretty easily, as could any of the Lakers’ future picks being conveyed here. While some people may scoff at second-round picks (and they have been overvalued a bit publicly over the last decade) as something valuable, they can be meaningful for a couple of reasons.

For starters, you could draft a significant contributor on the super cheap. (Think Draymond Green as best-case scenario because the Nikola Jokić thing isn’t happening again. OK, the Draymond thing probably won’t happen again either.) Also, you can include them in deals. Yes, they included some seconds in a deal here, but you’d probably like to dangle those in a more meaningful trade for you.

By giving up three assets of varying degrees of potential value, the Lakers are saying they’re willing to give up some level of assets and future for Hachimura. It makes me believe they are planning to re-sign him this summer, when he can be a restricted free agent. His qualifying offer will be around $8.4 million, and who knows what he’s expecting to receive in restricted free agency? Losing out on three future second-round picks isn’t a massive loss if he were to leave, and they do have some control, but this feels like they’re just hoping their “program” is the one that unlocks Hachimura’s potential.

Whatever that next contract is will ultimately determine how we feel about this deal down the road.

Grade: C+
Click to expand...

You're just not going to get me to care about 3 second round picks. Not when we have plenty left (6 or 7 between now and the end of the decade) AND we've shown we can/will buy them on draft night if we see someone we're interested in sitting there. Also, our scouts can work with whatever they've given. First round pick, second round pick, undrafted... we'll be fine on draft nights.

Wiz got a C

The writing was on the wall when the Wizards couldn’t come to an agreement with Hachimura on a contract extension this past fall. When Kyle Kuzma continued to solidify his position on the team and eat up a ton of minutes with his excellent play, it became obvious Hachimura was going to struggle to find a role. And when the team found some success with the unexpected pairing of Kristaps Porziņģis and Daniel Gafford on the floor together, there was no point in keeping Hachimura around to watch him walk away this summer.

If the Wizards did think a qualifying offer or re-sign of Hachimura was still possible, ridding themselves of that roster hold now helps them focus more on what their priority should be — re-signing Kuzma. He’s going to command a big salary, and the Wizards have as much control and influence as a team can when trying to bring back a role player for whom you have Bird rights in unrestricted free agency. The Wizards aren’t exactly penny-pinching here, but removing this Hachimura option makes it all the more clear what they’re intending to do this summer.

In the process of removing a logjam, the Wizards are acquiring three second-round picks. Yes, they missed on the Hachimura selection, and while you can’t replace a ninth pick with a first-round pick, grabbing three second-rounders is a pretty decent haul.

Nunn is an expiring deal, and perhaps he could provide some decent depth at the guard position this season and in the future. But they could lose him this summer and feel good about getting second-round picks from a team that right now doesn’t project to make those later in the draft any time soon.

Grade: C
Click to expand...

JSM, Jan 23, 2023

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karacha Moderator Staff Member

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Wow. This is actually... good.

I didn't know Rui was available. For Nun, well... we got much bigger and more flexible now. Hachimura is a serious face up threat, he's what, 6'8, around 235? Yeah, we can use that. He sucks on D, I think (prove me wrong!) but these days it seems much more important to score, and he can do that for sure. He has these scoring explosions sometimes, and we don't even need that. Just some consistency would be good. With him, Max, Brown and of course Bron, that's a much better wing rotation now. Much, much better.

karacha, Jan 23, 2023

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Lakers are extremely good at finding NBA talent. Those second round picks are probably more valuable with the Lakers then other teams.

Still seems like a reasonable move. If he can hit catch and shoot 3 pretty much all you need to be a factor with Lebron and AD

Pioneer10, Jan 23, 2023

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What we needed was a big wing who can play D and knock down 3s w/a high percentage.

Pelinka nabbed a guy to fit the bill. Let's hope he digs LA and lives up to his potential, which looks pretty large to me. 7'2" wingspan.

I dig it!

Yokoso Hachimura!

Zoyd Wheeler, Jan 23, 2023

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Jeanie must be happy now that Lakers have now tapped into the Japanese market. $$$ awaits if he plays well

The Rock, Jan 23, 2023

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BTW: LOL @ Harper's analysis: "Is this a greater position of need for the Lakers?"

We got a big, physically imposing wing who can score and hit his free throws. Sign me up. Is he a 3-pt shooter? No, but honestly I'll take this right now. He immediately improves the team, as long as Ham actually plays him. Fits well with Bron/AD lineup, or can play well with Bryant. Creates for himself. Yeah man. It is a greater position of need for the Lakers.

karacha, Jan 23, 2023

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Zoyd Wheeler said: ↑

What we needed was a big wing who can play D and knock down 3s w/a high percentage.

Pelinka nabbed a guy to fit the bill. Let's hope he digs LA and lives up to his potential, which looks pretty large to me. 7'2" wingspan.

I dig it!

Yokoso Hachimura!
Click to expand...

Too bad he does neither of these things

Kenzo, Jan 23, 2023

#35
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ESPN gives us a C

Finally, the Lakers have made a trade, although it's not the blockbuster we've been discussing since at least the 2022 trade deadline. Instead, the Lakers are making use of their stockpile of second-round picks to add a player they hope will be part of their long-term future.

Four seasons into his NBA career, the idea of Hachimura's game has been better than the results. At 6-foot-8, Hachimura is skilled for his size, but his late start with high-level basketball (a native of Japan, Hachimura did not come to the United States before arriving for a redshirt season at Gonzaga, where he played two years) has limited his effectiveness.

In particular, Hachimura hasn't filed out the box score as well as you'd like. Per 36 minutes, he's averaged just 1.1 combined steals and blocks this season, putting him 309th among the 369 players with at least 250 minutes this season. Hachimura is also a below-average defensive rebounder and playmaker for a combo forward, leaving him highly dependent on scoring to create value (13 PPG).

Shooting will be the swing skill for Hachimura going forward. He made 45% of his 3s in 43 games during 2021-22, the only season to date where Hachimura's true shooting percentage has been better than league average. That's dropped back to 34% this season, a bit below his career mark of 36%.

On the plus side, Hachimura won't turn 25 until next month, so there may be further development ahead. His size will be a plus on a Lakers team that has gotten tiny with LeBron James out of the game in Anthony Davis' absence. James had been the Lakers' only player capable of playing small forward taller than 6-foot-6.

The most interesting aspect of this deal is Hachimura's next contract. His $15.6 million cap hold as a restricted free agent this summer would swallow up nearly half of the Lakers' projected $30-plus million in cap space. The Lakers could reduce that if they sign Hachimura to a deal that starts at a lower value, but as long as he's re-signed using Bird rights, the Lakers are almost assuredly out of the bidding for a top-tier free agent.

In turn, that could affect the Lakers' decision-making before the trade deadline. If they're not using their full cap space, the Lakers may be better off staying over the cap and retaining Bird rights on Russell Westbrook as well as potentially accessing the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, projected at $11.4 million.

Staying over the cap would give the Lakers a better chance of building quality depth than spending all their cap space on a single player and having only the smaller room midlevel (projected at $5.9 million) to offer additional players appreciably more than the minimum. Using cap space to make the Westbrook trade is part of how the Lakers' depth got so precarious in the first place, after all.

If that's the direction the Lakers plan to go, it could make sense to deal 34-year-old guard Patrick Beverley, who's in the final season of his contract. The Lakers could target a younger player that's either under contract for 2023-24 or they intend to re-sign to a long-term deal like Hachimura.

To their credit, the Lakers made a deal that increases their 2022-23 payroll in pursuit of a playoff spot. Per ESPN's Bobby Marks, this deal adds a little more than $3 million to the Lakers' tax bill. Perhaps the Lakers can get more from Hachimura than the Wizards did and make him a long-term piece. Still, for that money and the second-round picks, I would have targeted a player with more proven production.
Click to expand...

And the Wiz get a B+... come on now.

Certainly, this wasn't the outcome Washington was hoping for with Hachimura, the team's highest draft pick since 2013 when he was taken No. 9 overall in 2019. With little progress to show from Hachimura's first three-plus NBA seasons and his free agency looming, cashing out was probably the right play.

The bigger question for the Wizards is whether they're done dealing. After all, Hachimura wasn't the team's most important impending free agent at forward. That's former Laker Kyle Kuzma, who has outplayed his possible extension value (four years, $70 million, per Marks) and will almost certainly decline a $13 million player option for 2023-24 in favor of testing free agency.

Making a move that slightly reduces team salary (Nunn makes $5.25 million this season, about a million less than Hachimura) gives Washington more wiggle room in constructing future trades without going into the luxury tax, a non-starter for a team two spots out of the play-in tournament. The Wizards now stand $1.4 million below the tax line.

Washington also gets an interesting second-round pick in this year's draft. The 2028 and 2029 picks are so far out as to be of little value at the moment, but Chicago's second-rounder would land 39th if the season ended today, a spot where the Wizards could find a quality prospect.

As for Nunn, there may not be a spot for him in Washington's crowded backcourt at full strength, but he's quietly played decently in January (10.5 PPG on .572 true shooting percentage) after a dreadful start to the season coming off missing all of 2021-22 due to a bone bruise in his right knee. Nunn is in the last year of his contract, meaning this trade won't affect the Wizards' books going forward.
Click to expand...

JSM, Jan 23, 2023

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He can hit the 3, he's just very average. He even shoots decent volume from 3. But he's a strange case, very much like Pope was for us: he either shoots 0% or 66% from 3.

karacha, Jan 23, 2023

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I don’t see how this is anything less than a solid B for us, those sites are hating big time at a good deal. I read that one of these 2nd rounders came to us in the Russ deal, so we’re just giving it back to Washington, and one is a swap, so I mean, it’s really not giving up much at all. If he doesn’t work out, that’s one thing, but it’s a great gamble as of right now, we needed someone this size with some scoring ability, he can grab some boards too, he’s 24, it’s extremely low risk.

Weezy, Jan 23, 2023

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That didn't take long to develop.

JSM, Jan 23, 2023

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not being able to see consistent minutes on a bad squad is not a great sign: Kuzma took a lot of minutes away pretty quickly.

Hope the "fit" is better with LA where he is asked to only feed on scraps and concentrate on defense/hustle plays will bring out the talent

Pioneer10, Jan 23, 2023

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