Washington Wizards: Rui Hachimura is poised for a big second year

A career of growth throughout college

As noted earlier, Hachimura didn’t play against elite basketball talent in high school. While Gonzaga is a national basketball powerhouse, its conference the West Coast Conference lacks NBA talent outside of Gonzaga. Hachimura’s first collegiate season didn’t suggest stardom and saw him average 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds in 4.6 minutes a game. This isn’t unexpected for a true-freshman but NBA stars tend to hit the ground running in much more competitive college conferences.

Hachimura’s production exploded in his sophomore season. He averaged 11.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in 20.7 minutes a game. This trend of massive improvement continued in his third and final college season that saw him average 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in 30.2 minutes a game. Another promising indication from Hachimura’s college growth is that as his volume increased so did his efficiency. His shooting percentage went from 52.8 percent to 56.8 percent, finally to 59.1 percent.

Hachimura saw similar growth in volume and efficiency in his 3-point shooting, but unfortunately, he took so few threes it is hard to tell how much of it was actual growth in his skill set or simply luck. His junior season he shot 41.7 percent from 3-point range, a massive improvement from his sophomore season when he only shot 19.2 percent but he took a combined 62 threes over that period. However, his first NBA season indicates that he might be very close to becoming a threat from 3-point range.