5. Rui Hachimura, Washington Wizards
18.0 PPG, 7.0 REB, 1.3 AST
Now here’s a guy who deserves much more praise than he’s going to get from the casual fan.
Rui Hachimura is a beast scoring the ball inside the arc. At 6’8″, it’s hard to contest any of the jumpers he can pull out of his bag of tricks.
Hitting on spot-up looks, post fades or drives to the basket are all in play for the combo forward. Not only can he score on the ball, but he’s already showing signs of being a valuable roll man and off-ball cutter with the basketball IQ and instincts to recognize opportunities that defenses give him.
He makes the most out of what he has, even if he’s not the most refined shot creator just yet. His handle isn’t quite where it needs to be, as he relies a lot on someone else setting him up to ultimately make a shot.
If he can figure out how to do more with the ball himself, however, he’ll take his offensive game to another level.
What I’d really like to see from the Washington Wizards 4 man is to focus on his finding teammates when the offense breaks down and not just forcing up a contested look, both in transition as well as in halfcourt sets.
Recognizing when to hit his teammates with timely passes will come in time, as a lot of score-first talents who put in the time to read play types and defenses tend to get better at making better decisions with the ball.
Hachimura is a hard worker who’s been billed as such both by his college and pro coaches. His ceiling is as high as almost anyone in his draft class, so watching him walk away with the Rookie of the Year award at the end of the season isn’t out of the question.