Rui Hachimura’s stats may not look different than previous seasons, but his growth and evolution has turned him into one of the Lakers most important players.
Rui Hachimura is matched up against one of the most dangerous perimeter players — if not the most dangerous — in the entire league in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Deep in his defensive stance, Rui’s right arm is extended and his hand is a mere inches from SGA’s face, shaking it the way a magician might when trying to distract his target’s vision as he pulls the trick off right in front of their eyes.
Rui is switched onto SGA after his man Isaiah Hartenstein dives into Dorian Finney-Smith to force the exchange the Thunder wants — a fact verified by Hartenstein moving back up to re-screen and potentially force the switch back, only for SGA to waive him off as he gears up to cook his man.
Shai goes into his dance, selling a drive to his right hand, but then quickly pulls the ball back between his legs to crossover left while exploding into a hard dribble to that side. With Rui sticking close, SGA counters again, stepping back to go into his shooting motion, ready to fire off the type of mid-range jumper he’s feasted on en route to leading the league in scoring this season.
Rui, though, remains right there, ready to contest. Shai, seeing the contest right there, pulls down the shot fake, and kicks to the wing. Rui’s job is not over though and rather than relax, he clutches tighter, latching onto the MVP frontrunner and denying him a chance to get the ball back by using his big frame to guide him to the sideline.
The result is a broken Thunder possession in a game full of them, which fittingly ends with Rui swooping in for a defensive rebound after an ill-fated OKC heave from well beyond the arc that only came to be from the defensive effort he put in during the previous 20 seconds against one the game’s most elite scorers.
Wheeeeeeew this Laker defense. pic.twitter.com/svHoWn6INW
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) April 6, 2025
Rui is trying to disrupt even the slightest of movements of reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, leaning into the big Serbian’s massive frame while the Joker combats him with a stiff arm that would make Derrick Henry proud.
Jokic receives the ball near the top of the key but instantly pivots and passes off the ball to his left while simultaneously making a balletic turn back to his right to try to free himself from Rui’s grasp. To aid in this effort more, Jokic gets a cross screen, which Rui artfully ducks under while Austin Reaves serves as a human speed bump, trying to obstruct Jokic’s path to the right mid-post.
As Jokic is only slightly delayed, Rui continues his race under the pick and meets him on the other side, dipping his shoulder and driving his legs to establish a fronting position to try to deny an entry pass. This has been the Lakers strategy all game — if Jokic never touches the ball, it’s hard for him to beat you.
With that entry pass cut off, Rui’s successful in this initial attempt but his job isn’t finished. As the ball reverses, so does Jokic, spinning back towards the paint, flowing back towards the ball on the other side of the court like a shark turning back towards its prey. The lane is crowded, though, with Rui’s teammates sagging deep into the paint to not only help deny Jokic the ball, but to encourage his less threatening teammates to shoot.
With the clock winding down, Aaron Gordon does just that, firing away from the top of the key. And that’s when Rui finishes the job, sinking deeper into his stance to get all the leverage he can to push and battle Jokic for that precious rebounding real estate under the rim. The ball caroms off away from both of them and Austin secures the ball.
Chalk that one possession up as a win for the Lakers.
First look at how physical the Lakers are with Jokic as he comes off the screen, Reaves buys time for Rui to recover. Hachimura jumps right into a front, Reaves hangs behind to take away the pass over the top, as Jokic works towards the other block, Hayes drops off Gordon to help… pic.twitter.com/KiKwfKiDNi
— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) February 23, 2025
Seven months ago if you would have told me that Rui Hachimura would not just end up being a critical fixture for the Lakers defense but that it would be his versatility and ability to switch onto guards and wings on the perimeter or shadow big men in the post with equal aplomb, I’d have laughed at you.
Rui, I’d have argued, was actually one of the Lakers defenders with the narrowest path to defensive success.
The way I saw it, Rui, much like Goldilocks from our childhood nursery stories, needed the defensive matchup that was juuuuust right: not too fast, not too much range, not too much size, not too much strength.
He was best on perimeter power forwards who could shoot but weren’t great drivers, who could drive but weren’t good shooters, players who wouldn’t move too much off the ball and were fairly easy to track.
Rui wasn’t a bad defender, per se, but he was a limited one whose engagement level and technique were both reflective of someone who’s been told his entire career that he needed to be good on offense to stick in this league.
This season, however, Rui has unlocked a new level of defensive success, mostly built on the idea that by leveraging his physical tools and giving him a straightforward job with a clear directive that he could be a net positive on that end of the floor.
Which is exactly what has happened.
Just as the clips above show, Rui has a clear understanding of what his responsibilities are and is working hard to execute them. Against guards and wings, that’s about keeping a consistent contest hand ready, using his size to create the proper distance to contain drives, and then steering him towards help. And against bigs — especially higher usage ones — he’s using his big frame to be physical on and off the ball, understanding where his help is, and trying to finish possessions with either good contests, going to the glass, or both.
Similarly, this sort of evolution Rui is showing defensively tracks with changes he’s made to his game offensively.
While still a three-level scorer, Rui’s almost totally removed contested mid-range shots from his diet and instead shifted most of his offensive attack to beyond the arc or at the rim.
This isn’t to say he won’t take (and make) a middy now and then — he had a huge one against the Mavericks on Wednesday after Dallas had made a run to take the lead to start the fourth quarter — but he no longer hunts those shots as part of his regular arsenal. Instead, he’s traded them in for spot up threes or shots in the restricted area off cuts, when attacking closeouts or via deep post ups when sealing smaller defenders.
This sort of growth offensively, when combined with his improvement defensively, has turned Rui into the sort of multifaceted contributor that, for these Lakers, is not reached the same level as, say, Austin Reaves, but is more than your classic role player who’s job is more one-note a la Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent or even Dorian Finney-Smith.
What also elevates Rui into greater importance is the simple fact that he does all this work on both sides of the ball while also offering the type of athletic size he has. Said another way, Rui’s presence allows every other forward-sized player to be slotted into the right-sized role and to be given the right job on any given night.
In the starting lineup, Rui can always take the forward or perimeter player the coaches do not want to have to put LeBron on as an initial matchup or to extend his minutes on. It also means he can defend some centers, allowing Jaxson Hayes to defend players who the team will surrender shots to so he can roam and impact the game as a helper around the rim and on the backboards.
Then, in the team’s center-less groups, Rui’s ability to scale up and defend opposing bigs while also showing that aforementioned greater proficiency on perimeter shot creators helps facilitate the team’s switching schemes where he can execute on both ends of the matchup.
And then offensively, he’s not only turned himself into an excellent 3-point shooter, but his ability to finish at the rim with power or finesse means the Lakers can consistently threaten any defense with that extra player who can cap off a play with a bucket even when help rotates at the rim to take it away. The importance of having a player who can do both of these things — hit threes AND finish at the rim — is a critical factor against defenses who try to stay big against the Lakers center-less lineups.
After the Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell for DFS, it was clear the team was trending more towards being a small-ball team in the minutes in which Anthony Davis did not play. But after the AD trade, it was cemented that the team would start a traditional big in Jaxson Hayes, but that in the minutes where Hayes was on the bench, they would play smaller with only forwards on the floor.
Rui’s skill set on both ends is what locks those groups into place.
Yes, DFS and LeBron can fill into key spots in any small-ball group, but it’s Rui’s combination of size, strength, athleticism, floor spacing, finishing at the rim, rebounding, and defense both on the wing and against post players that triggers the type of spread-you-out on offense and beat-you-up-with-rangy-size on defense that is necessary for the best small-ball lineups to work.
And, ultimately, this is why Rui matters so much and why simply calling him a role player does not do him justice.
You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegold.