Rui Hachimura is coming off an incredible postseason showing, as the power forward averaged 17.5 points per game, while shooting 54.9% from the field and 56.9% from three on 5.8 three-point attempts per game. After a performance like that against two elite defenses in the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, many NBA fans thought Hachimura was in store for a huge payday.
Instead, the former Laker signed with the Clippers for only a two-year contract for twenty-eight million. But what’s the reason Rui didn’t have a bigger free agency market?
Hachimura does have one skill he does at a high level, and that is his three-point shooting. But this wasn’t always the case. In his first four years in the NBA, he never shot more than 2.9 attempts from three per game.
During his last three years on the Lakers, the eight-year veteran forward took massive strides as a three-point shooter. In this span, Hachimura shot over 42.2%, 41.3%, and 44.3% from three, finishing with 99th, 97th, and 100th percentile ranks.
This growth not only came in percentage but also in his three-point attempts as well. As he shot 3.4, 4.2, and 3.9 three-point attempts, finishing in the 69th, 70th, and 51st percentiles.
While it’s good Rui can make threes at the clip he does, he only takes them when he’s wide open. The majority of the time, when he sees a defender closing out, even if he shoots the three, it would still be an open shot.
He pump-fakes into a one- or two-dribble mid-range pull-up. A player who can make threes at the clip Rui has reached in the past three years is valuable. But it would be more valuable if he took six threes a game and shot thirty-eight percent instead of taking three or four threes a game, shooting forty-two percent.
Another downside of the forward is that he struggles to attack mismatches. Despite being 6 ‘8 and weighing 230 pounds, there were multiple times in the first round against the Rockets when he struggled to capitalize when Reed Sheppard was guarding him. Who, in comparison, is 6 ‘2 and weighs 182 pounds.
Rui is a poor to below-average ball handler and passer, and playmaker. He’s not the player who can create advantages for himself consistently.
Instead, he relies on advantages to be created for him. Whether that be someone collapsing the defense and passing it to Hachimura for a catch and shoot three opportunity. Or a teammate gets the defense in rotation, giving Rui an advantage to attack off the catch.
When it comes to his passing and playmaking outside of basic reads or making the extra swing pass when the defense is already in rotation. Hachimura is not going to make a pass that initially will shift a defense and create an advantage for a teammate.
On the defensive side of the floor, he’s bad. Rui is too slow to keep anyone in front of him consistently.
When it comes to defending off the ball, he misses basic rotations constantly. Leading to his man getting an open shot or the defense as a whole breaking down as a result of his poor off-ball awareness.
Even with his flaws, Hachimura fills in the power forward spot vacancy left behind after John Collins signed with the Pistons this free agency on a fifty-one million deal for three years. While he’s not the same caliber of lob target or in general athlete as Collins.
Hachimura and Collins are similar caliber of players, but Rui gives them a better three-point shooter and another player who makes this roster stay in the play-in mix out west. Los Angeles is getting this kind of player in Hachimura, but for three million less a year than John, and is under contract for two years instead of three.
Los Angeles, while moving into a new, younger era, is built around Darius Garland and Keaton Wagler as their centerpieces. They still want to be competitive, and the addition of Rui alongside Garland, Wagler, and Brandon Ingram will help them be anywhere from the eighth to the eleventh seed at worst in the Western Conference.
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