the defensive work he did in that clippers game was beautiful. ofc we ended up losing anyways but i love to see it

Some people were saying the Lakers should trade him for Kuminga.

That would be such a dumb idea. He’s the only reliable spot up jump shooter.

He’s their best catch n shoot guy

hes the only player that can make shots reliably

He’s a free agent next season and will want more money most likely, Reaves is a free agent, so is LeBron

He’s probably gone anyway

You know it’s bleak when he’s the only reliable catch and shoot 3 point shooter on the team and even then his volume can be disappointing at times

He was pretty much given to the Lakers by the Wizards for pretty much 3 bags of potato chips

Lakers fans wanna trade him cuz they think we could get Steph in return.

Our fans are delulu

?? Rui’s gotta be the most hype up 13ppg guy ever. You woulda think he’s a modern day Danny Green lmao

I think we’re undefeated when he makes 15+ pts

He seems to finally understand how to keep himself in tempo even without touches. Before, he would get frustrated with limited touches. If he hustles on other aspects, the touches will naturally come

Never seen this man move laterally as good as he had been recently lol.

Surprise, the Lakers horrible bench got better by sending their 5th option to the bench to allow him to play more aggressive with the rest of the bench unit, instead of sitting in a corner watching the stars. It was so obvious that the quickest fix to improve both the starting lineup and bench, was making Rui the 6th man and adding more defense to the starting 5.

I’m glad JJ finally made the move

I still remember him basically outplaying the whole Memphis bench in the first round

It’s not that he’s a bad player he just doesn’t fit the starting lineup 

He’s not particularly strong defensively which forces Austin Reaves to be our POA defender (which is just bad) 

He’s always been best off the bench (like in the 2023 playoffs) 

He was going through a rough patch before his injury. Came back from injury and is playing less minutes and balling out.

I’m a biiiggg Rui supporter, but before the season even started it was clear to me that you can’t start AR, Luka, Rui, Lebron, and Ayton together. There’s just absolutely no defense and energy. His shooting fits, but even then he was rarely getting the ball. He would go entire games touching the ball less than 10 times while playing 30+ minutes.

He is still playing around 30ish minutes but becomes so much more relevant with one of Bron or Luka off the floor. He moves from the 4th or 5th option to oftentimes the 2nd or 3rd option with bench lineups.

Just curious, what does Bronny do exactly that’s fun to watch play? Besides being famous.

As a started he doesn’t really see the shot opportunities because too much usage between Bron, Luka, and with Reaves when he returns. He loses interest and basically becomes useless. As a sixth men he gets those shot opportunities and plays with a lot of confidence on both ends on the floor. Good for the team and good for him.

Lots of stuff. Due to the offense-heavy starting lineup that the Lakers had with Rui in it, he was guarding the opposite team’s best wing every single night. That’s a ridiculous ask of him.

Offensively, he was just getting stuck in the corner never touching the ball. Every night he’d be the 4th or 5th option depending on how Ayton is playing. Off the bench, he’s the 2nd or 3rd option. His job isn’t just stand in the corner and wait for Luka or Bron to find him when he’s coming off the bench.

Also, he plays a lot better in lineups with other defenders like Vando, Smart, and LaRavia as they can muck up the game and are good ball movers. Luka is an all-time passer, but he’s also very much a dribble the ball for 17 seconds and then make the pass and you better make that shot-type passer.

AR is not coming off the bench. He’s averaging nearly 27 in a contract year