Report: Lakers initially started Taurean Prince due in part to Rui Hachimura not embracing specific duties
March 22, 2024
Report: Lakers initially started Taurean Prince due in part to Rui Hachimura not embracing specific duties
32 comments
“But once Hachimura arrived in training camp, he didn’t embrace the role-player duties the coaching staff wanted from him — being fully engaged defensively, boxing out hard, making the extra pass,”
If this is true that’s insane, who does Rui think he is lmao
Glad it changed but that’s not the attitude to have on a LeBron team
That’s a fair reason to bench someone. Especially a role player. You don’t have to be great at everything but you have to try to play your role.
I’m curious if it’s true or not.
Regardless, it’s not like Prince does any of the small things like boxing out or rebounding any better than Rui. I’ve seen Prince stand and stare at the ball more often than not. And I think Rui is a better shooter at this point.
But it would be weird for someone like Rui to have that type of ego after just one playoff run especially on a Lebron team and after working out the entire summer with Lebron. None of these issues would’ve came up if Vanderbilt never got injured though.
Yeah and he just so happened to do all these things when the lakers were on a losing streak
All makes sense
Ok cool, it’s fine to bench him to send a message, but at some point you also have to recognize that starting Prince wasn’t working, yet Ham kept starting him for far too long.
I don’t believe this
So why did Taurean still start over Vando in January?? Sounds like BS to me.
I’m calling cap. Prince started the second game of pre-season and was part of the rotation ever since.
They even started some games with Rui and Prince together. Wtf
Ham’s camp backpedaling like a MF after they got bullied into starting Rui and Rui way outplayed Prince
🧢
I doubt this is true if anyone believes this crap u cray
Nah I don’t believe that’s why. I think Ham started Prince over Rui because of his history with Prince
To Taurean’s credit, in the last 5-10 games his rebounding in particular has DRASTICALLY improved.
That does not, however, explain this occurring at the beginning of the season when Taurean was maybe the worst rebounder at his height I’d ever seen.
This kind of reads like Ham leaking and throwing Rui under the bus to save face.
FAKE NEWS
Doesn’t make any sense. Its not like Taurean was filling that role either. Ham just gave the starting spot to someone he had a better relationship with.
Not boxing out or being engaged defensively? Doesn’t that pretty much describe the whole team? This sounds like CYA stuff leaking from Ham’s camp. Lakers are a better team even with Rui’s issues. All the players have issues.
Rui hit pieces. Really?
even if true, Ham still benched him and restricted his minutes to the massive detriment to the team by playing lesser players in his place.
Ham is the guy who told his team to get back on defense instead of going for offensive rebounds so this sounds like bullshit. Also, Rui just being a pure scoring threat is far more valuable then TP out their as a traffic cone. TP doesn’t box out or rebound either. This sounds like nonsense.
Funny cause Prince is allergic to rebounding and gets blown by defensively nearly every possession.
Rui was always the far better player. Prince won the starting lineup spot because he’s a former player Ham coached.
I rather lose than have Rui start. Darvin Ham probably
Is Lakers Daily the source for this article or did just copy paste from someone else?
These coming out now seem interesting. like an attempt at throwing off our squad mentally. We are starting to go on a roll and this is the time you want everyone in the same page, but first DLo interview and now this? Next we are gonna hear about Ham making a pass at Brons wife or something. This is off season news, coming out now is sus imo
Ham looks more and more like Mark Jackson every day. Pitting players against each other and leaking stories to the media to make players look bad. This shouldn’t be a story but if Ham is trying to make himself look like a victim here, this is what a ham-fisted amateur would do as spin control.
Ham wants to start Taurean again so badly, he hates rui so bad.
This just sounds like a BS article to make an excuse for why Ham didn’t play Rui more often earlier in the season.
This is like saying u wanna have sex with zendeya over Taylor swift cuz she has more ass.
It’s not like Prince is doing those things either lol
Ham putting hit pieces
Don’t care really, we are better when Prince plays fewer minutes, and we are especially better when Rui is playing.
32 comments
“But once Hachimura arrived in training camp, he didn’t embrace the role-player duties the coaching staff wanted from him — being fully engaged defensively, boxing out hard, making the extra pass,”
If this is true that’s insane, who does Rui think he is lmao
Glad it changed but that’s not the attitude to have on a LeBron team
That’s a fair reason to bench someone. Especially a role player. You don’t have to be great at everything but you have to try to play your role.
I’m curious if it’s true or not.
Regardless, it’s not like Prince does any of the small things like boxing out or rebounding any better than Rui. I’ve seen Prince stand and stare at the ball more often than not. And I think Rui is a better shooter at this point.
But it would be weird for someone like Rui to have that type of ego after just one playoff run especially on a Lebron team and after working out the entire summer with Lebron. None of these issues would’ve came up if Vanderbilt never got injured though.
Yeah and he just so happened to do all these things when the lakers were on a losing streak
All makes sense
Ok cool, it’s fine to bench him to send a message, but at some point you also have to recognize that starting Prince wasn’t working, yet Ham kept starting him for far too long.
I don’t believe this
So why did Taurean still start over Vando in January?? Sounds like BS to me.
I’m calling cap. Prince started the second game of pre-season and was part of the rotation ever since.
They even started some games with Rui and Prince together. Wtf
Ham’s camp backpedaling like a MF after they got bullied into starting Rui and Rui way outplayed Prince
🧢
I doubt this is true if anyone believes this crap u cray
Nah I don’t believe that’s why. I think Ham started Prince over Rui because of his history with Prince
To Taurean’s credit, in the last 5-10 games his rebounding in particular has DRASTICALLY improved.
That does not, however, explain this occurring at the beginning of the season when Taurean was maybe the worst rebounder at his height I’d ever seen.
This kind of reads like Ham leaking and throwing Rui under the bus to save face.
FAKE NEWS
Doesn’t make any sense. Its not like Taurean was filling that role either. Ham just gave the starting spot to someone he had a better relationship with.
Not boxing out or being engaged defensively? Doesn’t that pretty much describe the whole team? This sounds like CYA stuff leaking from Ham’s camp. Lakers are a better team even with Rui’s issues. All the players have issues.
Rui hit pieces. Really?
even if true, Ham still benched him and restricted his minutes to the massive detriment to the team by playing lesser players in his place.
Ham is the guy who told his team to get back on defense instead of going for offensive rebounds so this sounds like bullshit. Also, Rui just being a pure scoring threat is far more valuable then TP out their as a traffic cone. TP doesn’t box out or rebound either. This sounds like nonsense.
Funny cause Prince is allergic to rebounding and gets blown by defensively nearly every possession.
Rui was always the far better player. Prince won the starting lineup spot because he’s a former player Ham coached.
I rather lose than have Rui start. Darvin Ham probably
Is Lakers Daily the source for this article or did just copy paste from someone else?
These coming out now seem interesting. like an attempt at throwing off our squad mentally. We are starting to go on a roll and this is the time you want everyone in the same page, but first DLo interview and now this? Next we are gonna hear about Ham making a pass at Brons wife or something. This is off season news, coming out now is sus imo
Ham looks more and more like Mark Jackson every day. Pitting players against each other and leaking stories to the media to make players look bad. This shouldn’t be a story but if Ham is trying to make himself look like a victim here, this is what a ham-fisted amateur would do as spin control.
Ham wants to start Taurean again so badly, he hates rui so bad.
This just sounds like a BS article to make an excuse for why Ham didn’t play Rui more often earlier in the season.
This is like saying u wanna have sex with zendeya over Taylor swift cuz she has more ass.
It’s not like Prince is doing those things either lol
Ham putting hit pieces
Don’t care really, we are better when Prince plays fewer minutes, and we are especially better when Rui is playing.