While head coach JJ Redick tried to play coy about not giving much thought to his starting lineup heading into training camp, the Lakers realistically have four of the five spots accounted for. LeBron
James, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton will all start for fairly obvious reasons, leaving one spot remaining.
Over recent years, Rui Hachimura has held down the fifth roster spot. However, his defensive limitations and the arrival of Marcus Smart have led many fans to wonder if he would be a better fit alongside Luka and Reaves.
Naturally, that was a talking point at media day on Monday, and Smart and Rui had two pretty different tones to their answers.
For Smart, the veteran in the league, he was adamant that it did not matter if he was in the starting lineup.
“I’m here to win,” Smart said. “However that means, that’s me. No matter whether I start or come off the bench, my presence will be made.”
Regardless if he comes off the bench or not, it was also made pretty clear both in his quotes from media and Redick’s last week that he would be a leader of the team’s defense, which might be another reason to start him.
As for Rui, well, it wasn’t quite as diplomatic. Well he acknowledged he would do whatever Redick decided, it didn’t sound like he’d be thrilled to be moved out of the starting lineup.
“I mean, it’s coach’s decision,” Hachimura said. “It’s not my decision. It’s not really about who’s starting and not, it’s just the minutes and who can be on the court longer. I think it’s, for me, just whatever the team needs me to do. But we’ve been building the chemistry that I’ve been in the starting five for two, three years. So whatever they decide I have to do, it’s just a matter of the chemistry, how we can build and we can be on the court together and how we can give an impact.”
I would say that I’m willing to give Rui a bit of a break here, considering English is his second language. You have to read into his quote a little bit to come to the conclusion that he doesn’t really want to come out of the starting lineup and there is a chance that’s not how he meant it to come across.
He does have some numbers to back him up to a degree. The four-man lineup of LeBron, Luka, Rui and Reaves played 226 minutes together last season and had a net rating of 5.1. That’s the second-most minutes of any four-man lineup with Luka and only one lineup that played more than 175 minutes had a better net rating.
However, there is plenty of logic in moving him to the bench. Not only does it help the starting lineup defensively, it also helps the bench have a scoring punch. Giving Rui the chance to go up against second units and have a bit more freedom offensively when not playing around three superstars is an idea that has merit to it.
Genuinely, it feels like an argument where either side is a sensible option. Hopefully, the players truly feel the same way as well.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
