Aside from all the reasons to be hyped for Rui Hachimura, I am perhaps most hyped because there now appears to be a young NBA player who is willing to make a living in the midrange, analytics be damned.
Carmelo Anthony used to be that player, then he started shooting threes, then he got so bad that no team wanted him. Jerry Stackhouse also used to be that player. There were a lot of players like that in the old days (when I say old days I mean “five to ten years ago). It wasn’t until they were mostly gone that I realized how much I missed them.
Hachimura, at this point, can’t really shoot three-pointers. He had a game where he hit a few, and then another game where he hit one, and that’s it so far. His range doesn’t go out to the arc, I guess, because he absolutely makes it rain from the midrange. He loves shooting those shots. He’ll take them in any way, off the dribble, off a post move, off the catch.
It almost doesn’t feel sustainable, but I’m not going to let such forbidden thoughts enter my mind until after he enters a prolonged era of bricking. I thought he might be starting one, with his recent poor shooting performances, but then he comes and drops this beautiful game on national TV.