While there is still much the Lakers have to figure out with their roster and lineup, it does appear they’ve found a solution to some of their bench scoring woes.
Upon his return from injury, Rui Hachimura came off the bench as he was playing under a minutes restriction. However, as many thought would be the case, it looks like Rui will remain in that role moving forward.
Now, that phrasing does leave open the possibility that Rui re-enters the lineup once Austin returns, which will be soon, but it would seem like an odd choice to go back to that lineup, which was not doing well, after Reaves returns.
It would also come at a time when Rui seems to have embraced his role off the bench and is finding comfort in it. After showing some flashes of returning to his old self, he broke out in a big way in Dallas, scoring 17 points with some huge fourth-quarter shots.
Now that he’s in a groove, moving him back into the starting lineup feels like it’d be an unnecessary risk and especially so for a lineup that wasn’t working.
Keeping Rui on the bench also helps the Lakers have some offense among the reserves. LA currently ranks last in the league in points per game from reserves and it’s not particularly close, either.
Rui won’t fix that by himself, but he will improve it. As I said, the Lakers have a lot of problems and they’ll have one more if they move Rui back into the starting lineup.