Rui Hachimura turned in his best overall campaign with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2024-25 season, becoming a reliable 3-point shooter and showing an increased sense of urgency on the glass.
Hachimura was leaned on as one of the few frontcourt players with size in the Lakers rotation, but his valiant efforts weren’t enough to keep the team from being eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Los Angeles lost in five games, and the overarching theme of the series was that they were far too small across the board against Minnesota. The Timberwolves punished the Lakers with their size and physicality, and players like Hachimura eventually wore down.
Following elimination, Hachimura emphasized that the team’s overall lack of rebounds was its downfall and needs to be address this offseason.
“I mean, you guys can see the score. We didn’t get rebounds. We need somebody to get rebounds. I gotta be one of them,” he addmitted. “Starting being more engaging with rebounds, of course. I can’t just be face-to-face, posting up the whole game. I couldn’t get a rebound. That’s the whole thing, [Rudy Gobert] is 7’2”, 7’5” wingspan or whatever.
“He’s a big man and the problem was I think we helped off Gobert, put on two guys on the other guy, that leads to offensive rebounding, it’s easy. It’s not only him, it’s the other guys that could get rebounds from that. Most of the other starting five except Mike Conley can get rebounds. So I think that was the game for us.”
Hachimura also acknowledged that he couldn’t do much more than he did given his own physical limitations.
“It’s tough. Unfortunately, I’m not a five-man,” Hachimura said. “I’m 6’8”, 240. It’s tough. It is what it is. The coaches trusted me to put me in that stretch and I tried to fight through that. But there’s a limit to it. Like I said, the only thing I can do is literally facing up and maybe I can tap (the ball out), I can’t just go get rebounds like that. So it’s tough. But that was our team’s strength this year and it is what it is.”
The organization understands what it needs to fix this offseason as president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said their priority is to add more size at the center position. Adding a legitimate center who can clean up the defensive glass would go a long way in helping the Lakers get back to contending.
JJ Redick called Rui Hachimura a warrior after being hit in face in Game 2
Rui Hachimura played hard throughout the Timberwolves series and got rewarded with several nicks and bruises. Hachimura took a shot to the face in Game 2, and Lakers head coach JJ Redick called him a warrior for playing through it.
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