Why the Wizards were willing to trade Rui Hachimura to Lakers | NBA Today

We've got trade news for you. Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Lakers have agreed to a deal to acquire Washington Wizards forward Rui Hachimura. That's an exchange for Kendrick Nunn and three second round picks. Hachimura was the ninth overall pick out of Gonzaga, remember, in the 2019 NBA draft. Here now with Woj. So, Woj, can you just back us up a little bit here? How exactly did this trade come together? Malika, there were discussions as late as last night that included bigger trades than just a two-way deal with L.A. I was told that there were some three-way talks that would have involved Phoenix. But those larger trade discussions fell by the wayside. And then L.A. and Washington this morning zeroed in on the deal that they ultimately landed on Rui Hachimura for Kendrick Nunn and those three second round picks. A 2023 pick that L.A. has via Chicago and the Lakers own 2029 pick. And this was a player, Hachimura, who had wanted to be moved, did not reach a contract extension on his rookie extension this summer and into the fall with Washington and wanted to be finishing games. That wasn't happening. And Kyle Kuzma certainly moved into a significant role in this wizard's front line. And I think for Washington, this is a chance for them, you know, to move on from Hachimura and, you know, get some draft capital back without taking salary back from the Lakers and a Laker team now that obviously with Hachimura, you know, gets a young wing player, wing defender, three-point shooter, a corner three-point shooter. He's shown some success doing that in the last couple of years. And I'm told the Lakers certainly would like to sign Hachimura to an extension this summer. He'll be a restricted free agent. But this, you know, gets another young big wing in that Laker lineup who can defend and obviously make some open shots. They needed more shooting on this Laker team. And it's a player that they hope can help right away. And they certainly hope they can develop over time and into the kind of player people thought he would be when he was picked in the top 10 out of Gonzaga. So, Rui Hachimura, you're reporting on his way to Los Angeles, Woj. Thank you very much. I want to bring it out to the entire panel now here with Ramona Shelburne, Richard Jefferson, Chanae Agumake, Kendrick Perkins is going to be joining us in just a little bit. Fix your face. Ramona, let's start with you here. What more can you tell us about what the Lakers are hoping to get with Rui Hachimura being added to this roster? Well, they like that he's a big defender, 6'9", can play on the wings. And in that mold, like Markeith Morris, when they had him on that championship team, their analytics suggest that he has had good stretches where he could hit that corner three. And when LeBron plays with guys like that, he generally tends to elevate their gains. And so they've had some success finding some good role players lately. Last night against Portland, Thomas Bryant, Dennis Schroeder, those are guys that they got for minimum deals. They did not have to do much with these guys. And they've found some gems. They're hoping Hachimura can be in the same role here because they think that he will play well next to LeBron James. They have enough guards. Right. But the way Dennis Schroeder's played, the way Pat Bev is starting to play, they have enough guards. Kendrick Nunn was expendable here. They need more size. Interesting. Rich, your thoughts on this trade? Why are you messing with me? No, no, no, listen. Good job, baby. It is an improvement. Like, Hachimura is a very good player. Like, again, you look at, like, Thomas Bryant and what he's been doing. I believe he was the backup to Rui right before he got there. So, like, you look at the mold, he's a more skilled player. But similar effort, body types, they can do similar things. I like Thomas Bryant. It is an improvement over Kendrick Nunn. Like, the second round picks, we look at the second round picks and say, oh, that's not a lot. But understand, the Lakers only have so many assets. So if you're taking away those second round picks, which do have value, maybe not the first rounds that everyone is talking about. But if you don't want to give up those first rounds, your second round is the only one that you have a little bit of leverage with. So you give away three for them. Now you're limited in those assets. And then you look and say, okay, is he going to make us that much better? Well, look, the Lakers were, look, great comeback last night. But they are better with him. So I'll give him that. Is this a deal break? Or is this a needle mover? Is this going to move him from eight to six? I don't think so. But it is a step in the right direction. Yeah, I like the durability factor. I know apart from his, you know, stretches where he's been injured, just by his size, his physique, we all know LeBron James thrives with shooting and also athletic wings. And then you look at the rotations. Anthony Davis coming back soon. Thomas Bryant obviously doing a great job. And then LeBron even playing the four, you know, technically in lineups. You insert him where maybe you're worried about AD's durability moving forward. But then now you have someone that can sort of split the minutes, can guard some bigs, can get out, stretch the floor, knock down a shot. Because we all know the number one necessity to play great alongside LeBron James is being able to stretch the defense out. So LeBron can get to the rim and do what he does best. LeBron will hit some jumpers, but he really wants to get to the paint. So I think this is one of those things where it's sneaky good because it's not like you're making huge risks with those second round picks. And he's checking all the boxes necessary to, you know, build at least us. They're not like a championship roster, but at least they're like more of a stable contending roster. If they're going to try to make a playoff. Meaning if you're going to try to have stability and become a contender for the playoffs, I'm not talking about championships. You need to have a foundation for the playoffs. Thank you. Yeah, this helps them be a contender for the playoffs. Because how old is he? Like what? 23, 24 years old. If you develop him the right way, he has all the makings to be a solid player. And to your point, Adrian Wojnarowski reported over the weekend that Anthony Davis could be back in the Lakers lineup as soon as this week. Obviously, he needs to continue to test that foot. I'm curious though, Kendrick Perkins, how would you grade this trade? You know what? I give it a B plus. Let me, let me explain why, right? When you look at Rui and you look at his, his size, his athleticism and the wing position is the most important position in the game today. And so you have this young man who, I'm not knocking the Wizards organization, but they didn't have a LeBron James. And I'm not talking about a LeBron James on the floor. I'm talking about off the floor. So now this young fella could learn how to take care of his body. He had one of the greatest, if not the greatest to ever play the game of basketball that he could communicate with, learn from how to work on his body, how to work on his game, how to be a true professional. So it's good for the Lakers short-term and it's great for the Lakers long-term because now you have this young piece that you could mold and go into and develop him. And so it's great. Number one issue for the Lakers were shooting. Now, this is a big that can shoot a little bit more than, let's say like a Thomas Bryant. Agreed. So this is an improvement, but their number one need. They don't even play the same position. I'm just saying they play like the power forward, small forward role. They play the hybrid position, so the number one need was shooting and I still don't think they addressed it. They're better in that position, but not from a 32 to a 42. They still have that gaping hole that they need to address. Sure, but at the end of the day, it's relatively low stakes. They needed a big wing defender and Murray could potentially fill that role. This kind of culminates though. This has been a big event for a couple of days for the Los Angeles Lakers. In case you guys missed it, they had a gutsy win last night. Let's head to Moda Center. Speaking of this one, Dame Lillard was the story of the first half. I mean, watch this. Dame goes, gets it to go, starts drawing a little bit back and forth with Patrick Beverly here. Surprise. Their conversation extends and Rich, after this little, what do I call this, a kerfuffle? This is when the kerfuffle started. This is when the kerfuffle started and then the Blazers went on a 38 to 1 run to end the half. This is the point in the night where I'm like, cool, I had dinner reservation. What was the run again? 38 to 1. Okay. Time to go, dinner reservation, 31 to 8, 31 to 8, 31 to 8. There we go. I was like, I was ready to go to my dinner reservation and then the LeBron show. It was so impressive watching LeBron go to work. I was watching this game and I was like, wait a second, are they down? Because I was also watching the Warriors game. I was jumping back and forth, maybe a little bit of football, who knows? But the fourth quarter comes and you're like, okay, the Lakers are on a run. That run never stopped. Very similar to the trailblazers running that first half. Brian hitting threes. I know. Five from three. And then LeBron backing down his man down low. Chanae gets it to go. Look, that's where he wants to go and that's why adding a Rui is going to be important to be able to make sure he can keep doing this. But look at that, the effort. Okay. I was speaking to Thomas Bryan a couple of days ago. He actually told me that Russell Westbrook has been a big part of his success, who's pushed him to run the floor. And then Patrick Beverly, I think he's saying his watch is broken. He stole his clock. I'm sorry. Let's take a listen to LeBron James after the game. One or two ways you can either go out and you can just lay down and get ready for the next game where you can see what can happen in the third quarter, make a game of it. And for us as competitors and our team and our makeup this year, we're not a laid down team. It's just not the makeup of our club. So we came out and showed the makeup of our club in the third quarter, gave myself a chance to go into the fourth and turn it into a few possession game into a couple of possession game. And one possession game was able to take the lead. I believe on the Thomas three on the left wing finally took the lead. Yep. Yeah. So, you know, after that, we just started trying to get some stops and keep building our lead up, you know, from one to three to five or whatever the case may be, all the way up to seven at one point. So just to contextualize how crazy this comeback was, the Lakers 25 point halftime comeback, the largest in LeBron's regular season career that covers over 1400 games. That's also just the third 20 point, 25 point halftime comeback by the Lakers in the shot clock era. However, I mentioned that comeback. It was the largest LeBron's regular season career, but let's flash back to the first round of the 2017 playoff. I had a great view of this one. He also helped erase the 25 point halftime. This was game three against the Pacers. James was plus 30 in the second half. After the break, he leads the Cavs to a 119-114 win. Richard, we know where you were because this is how your numbers stacked up against LeBron's in that. This is one of those things. This is the group that got us back into it. And like a true great coach, Tyronn Lue, he went with the unit that went going. If we want to start looking at plus and minuses, I played four minutes. I had nothing to do with the 19 point deficit. I had nothing to do with the 19 point comeback. That's just the truth. So I was watching, I was like, these boys might get, you know what else? There's lots of players over there. It was beautiful to watch. No, no, no, no. But I was in the G League at the time. Let's not talk to the G League player. What happened? He was in the G League right now. You was a minus 12 in four minutes. That means Tyronn Lue gave you a shot. And they have an old saying, if a coach gave you one minute, give him a reason to give you four minutes. I was more of a finals guy than a first round. What happened was you just wasn't cutting the mustard. You wasn't cutting it. Four minutes, I didn't take a shot. He gave you an opportunity. You wasn't ready. You wasn't ready for the moment. And it's OK though. You was playing a great team. Oh, no. I appreciate it. One of these days, we'll put our career earnings up there. Oh, my goodness.