Does Washington Wizards’ Rui Hachimura match up to league’s stars?

Following a nice showing in the Rising Stars game, we look at how Washington Wizards rookie Rui Hachimura matches up against the league’s best talent.

Rui Hachimura has had a big weekend already for the Washington Wizards. In Friday night’s Rising Stars game, the Japanese phenom put up the first six points for Team World, all on dunks. Then, the league’s King, LeBron James, gave Hachimura a huge ego boost.

He wound up with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal across just 20 minutes on average, and really most of his damage was done in the first half where he looked like he could be the game’s MVP if it held up.

That level of play unfortunately did not hold up, but he still played a solid overall game, as he has been doing all season for our Washington Wizards with per 36 averages of 17.3 points per game, 7.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and just 1.1 turnovers on shooting splits of 49/24/83.

Obviously, we’d like to see that three-point percentage come up, but otherwise he’s having a standout season and he’s playing so well he can be compared to some of the young seasons of some very decent players.

Here’s who Rui compares to the closest with those stats, briefly.

Larry Johnson’s age 22 season

I include the legendary Larry Johnson, Grandmama, because he was the same exact age as Rui, 22 years old and his numbers are strikingly similar. In his rookie campaign, he put up 18.6 points per 36 minutes of action and 10.6 rebounds per 36 over 37.2 minutes of action for the Charlotte Hornets.

Both of those numbers are higher than Rui, but not by much, and he was in a similar situation on a struggling Hornets team that ended up going 31-51 in the 1991-92 season. But the main reason I compare these two is because LJ shot just 22.7 percent from beyond the arc in his rookie campaign, which is encouraging as Rui is shooting ever so slightly better at 23.6 percent this season.

Larry Johnson wound up shooting a respectable 33.2 percent from range on his career with three seasons around 36 percent or higher. So there’s hope for Rui in that department yet.

Shawn Marion’s age 22 season

Shawn Marion, AKA “The Matrix,” put up the exact same points per 36 minutes as Rui Hachimura in 17.3 points per game, but he did rebound the ball a bit more with 10.7 rebounds per game across his 36.2 minutes per game. But keep in mind that this was The Matrix’s sophomore season and not his rookie season.

Another guy on this list who averaged just 25.6 percent from beyond-the-arc, which was a step up from his putrid 18.2 percent efforts in his rookie season, Shawn Marion went on to average 33.1 percent from deep over his illustrious 16 season career.

The thing that puts Shawn Marion over Rui Hachimura is his defensive stats, where he averages 0.8 more steals and 1.2 more blocks per 36 minutes than the Washington Wizards’ prize rookie.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s age 24 season

And finally, perhaps the greatest comparison that matches the eye test as well as the stats test: LaMarcus Aldridge. LMA’s fourth season is eerily similar to Rui Hachimura’s rookie campaign. Here’s the per 36 numbers side by side, Rui’s first then Aldridge’s.

17.3 v 17.2 points, 7.5 v 7.7 rebounds, 1.9 v 2 assists, 0.9 v 0.8 steals, 0.2 v 0.6 blocks, 1.1 v 1.3 turnovers

How about that? THose numbers are almost spot on, and to be compared to LMA is pretty good company in my opinion as the mid-range assassin is one of the best bigs in the game and having a solid season for the San Antonio Spurs.

LaMarcus Adlridge did shoot the ball better than Rui Hachimura in this season, especially from deep, but worse from the free throw line.

Takeaways

Rui Hachimura has some very solid company, especially if he can turn it on over the last 29 games of the season for the Washington Wizards and really up those numbers. He needs to keep working on his range game, but he shouldn’t be discouraged from shooting them. It’s a necessary part of any player’s game in today’s NBA.

What probably shocked me most from this statistical deep-dive was that Rui is averaging significantly less minutes than the other guys on this list in their respective seasons. A large part of that is injuries, but I expect him to creep closer to the 32-34 minute range as the season rolls on and he returns to health.

He’s only managed 30 games thus far this season, which is a good enough amount to get a look at his average stats, but ideally he’ll play at least 25 more games for the Washington Wizards before the campaign is out. That should be his and the organization’s main goal here.