Washington Wizards: 3 Goals for Rui Hachimura next season
By Jamal Bedell
Rui Hachimura earned All-Rookie 2nd Team honors in his first year with the Washington Wizards. Here are three goals for him coming into his second year!
The sky is the limit for Rui Hachimura! After a superb rookie season, the Washington Wizards have to be ecstatic about what’s to come in year two. Washington selected Rui with the 9th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. He became the first Japanese player ever to be taken in the first round. It was apparent that Washington had gotten themselves a steal after Rui’s first professional game.
In his first game — a loss to the Mavs — Rui finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds in just 25 minutes of play. In 48 regular-season games, Rui averaged 13.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 1.8 APG. His stellar play led to an All-Rookie 2nd-team selection. He made the team over RJ Barrett, De’Andre Hunter, Darius Garland, Jaxson Hayes, and Jarrett Culver, all of whom were picked before Hachimura on draft night.
Not even the Wizards could have predicted Rui would succeed so fast when they selected him out of Gonzaga. Rui’s growing injury which forced him to miss 23 games, and the team’s inability to make the playoffs (again) were the only downsides of his rookie season. Other than that, his first year was a success! Now it’s time to see what he does for an encore.
With a few months to work on his game and add other components, Hachimura should be even better in his second season. His coaches and teammates praise his work ethic constantly, so I expect a major jump next season.