Washington Wizards: 5 Best Games from Rui Hachimura’s Rookie Season

Rui Hachimura had a tremendous first year for the Washington Wizards. Let’s take a look at the five best games from his rookie season!

What an unbelievable rookie season for Washington Wizards rookie Rui Hachimura. The NBA finally released the All-Rookie teams this week and Hachimura was selected to the second team.

Hachimura is the first Wizards rookie to make an All-Rookie team since Bradley Beal was selected to the first team in 2013. The last Washington player to be named to the NBA All-Rookie 2nd team was Jarvis Hayes in 2002-2003, which was quite a while ago.

When the Washington Wizards selected Hachimura with the ninth pick in last year’s draft, he was somewhat of a wildcard. People scoffed at future Hall of Fame point guard Chauncey Billups when he said Hachimura’s game resembled Kawahi Leonard’s during the Draft broadcast.

After playing with him for a season, Beal also sees what Billups was talking about on draft night.  Beal said, “He’s not Kawhi, but he plays like him… He can post smaller guys, he can guard big guys. He’s very versatile in a lot of ways. I think his ceiling is really high. I love him. He’s a workhorse.” These are rave reviews coming straight from your superstar. And he’s not the only NBA vet showering Rui with praise.

Throughout the course of his rookie season, Rui Hachimura proved he’s a force to be reckoned with. If you don’t count Zion Williamson’s short season, Hachimura led all rookies in rebounding and finished 5th in scoring among all rookies. Rui averaged 13.5 points and 6.1 rebounds. His efficiency rate was astounding at 14.7, which ranked third behind rookies Ja Morant and Brandon Clarke. Rui still needs to develop more on the defensive end but his versatility on offense was apparent almost immediately. With his work ethic, there’s no question he’ll become a more complete player in due time.

Now let’s take a look back at Rui’s five best games from his rookie season.