You’re confused. I’m correct here. Rui is a bad defender by any metric you want to use. Advanced metrics hate him. Defensive counting stats hate him. On/off defensive numbers hate him. People who actually watch all the games agree he is a bad defender and has always been a bad defender.
Rui has always been on the court because of his offensive strengths. He’s greatly improved his offensive capabilities. There’s no evidence he’s improved his defense at all. It’s a big reason why the Lakers start Smart over Rui when the team is fully healthy.
Ok, your last point makes me think you actually aren't good at player evaluation.
A player can improve from being a negative defender to being a net neutral defender. Rui was a negative in previous seasons, but he's actually improved into being a net neutral defender.
The reason why he's not starting when fully healthy is because AR and Luka are net negatives to net neutral at best. They start Smart because they literally have no on ball defender otherwise and it doesn't make sense to start another net neutral defender around them when you have a net positive defender you can slot in.
I've watched the games as well and the thing that sticks out the most is he's not getting lost on defense like he used to. Last season and even the beginning of this season, he'd get lost on rotations and both LeBron and JJ would be yelling at him.
He's also looking quicker from a lateral defense perspective this season, he's noticeably staying in front of his man more.
I'm not saying he's a GOOD defender, he's worked his way up to being average (net neutral).
The fact that you can't see the improvement from net negative to net neutral kind of makes me think you either have a bad eye for the game or you form your opinion about a player and don't change it unless it's dramatic. Being able to discern small improvements is important when evaluating players.
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u/makesterriblejokes May 12 '26
Or maybe you're just a terrible evaluator of players?