Trade Talk: Hachimura vs. Nunn, etc.

I was meaning to write this article before Hachimura made his Lakers debut last night, but it really doesn't matter, since he contributed exactly as I expected he would.

Lakers Get:	Wizards Get:
Rui Hachimura	Kendrick Nunn
	Three 2nd Round Picks

Anytime I write about the Lakers, there's certain points I feel a need to drive home.  One is that despite roster imbalances, with LBJ, Russ and AD they should be contenders regardless.  If fact is they always played correctly, then they should be able to beat most teams even without Davis.

And of late, they've been trying.  LBJ may not post up, but he's so strong that him driving basically has the same effect.  Russ is arguably the strongest G in the league, and now he's also capitalizing on that attribute by driving instead of depending on a virtually-nonexistent jumpshot.  AD also finally got the point, that they need him at the 5 instead of on the perimeter chucking up threes.  If he actually stays healthy and gets his legs under him, I don't see any reason why the Lakers can't compete for the title.

Players like Malik Monk and Stanley Johnson are now forgotten Lakers.  But those are the types of versatile, long, athletic types that you need next to Lebron when he's handling the ball.  LAL acquiring Lonnie Walker mitigated pain of losing Monk.  And as for Hachimura, he's a better all-around player than Johnson.  So out of all the boneheaded moves LAL has made in recent years, at least now they finally rightened one of their biggest mistakes, which was losing Monk especially but also Johnson.

As for Kendrick Nunn, he's one of the more baffling cases in the NBA.  He was a star rookie and I think even a starter in his first year, on Miami, a team which isn't known to be easy to crack the starting lineup.  Then it's like the Heat totally devalued him.  Maybe it was because they got better yet similar player in Jimmy Butler.  And I was kinda excited when Nunn went to LA, but then he got injured or whatever, and that plan never really worked out.

Speaking of devalued, it seems that Hachimura wasn't fully appreciated in Washington either.  I remember him getting into like internal beef a couple of times (but don't feel like looking up those incidents at the moment).  Also right before being traded, he made a statement like the Wizards don't want him.  Washington's braintrust isn't as incompetent as you would readily presume.  But I'd be surprised if Nunn, at this point, will be able to match Rui's production.

Then there are all those 2nd round picks which, hey, you never know, could prove something in the hands of a guru.  But, does Washington even really have any gurus like that?

CONCLUSION

Rui Hachimura may never be an all-star, but he's exactly the type of player the Lakers needed.  They could also use an additional rim protector for the times AD is hurt, but at least they solved one of their pressing issues, which was adding another athletic scoring wing.  With AD in the post, now you can have Lebron running point with Walker and Hachimura on the wings.  That would be a pretty hard lineup to beat.

As for the Wizards, they remain the team with dogged faith in Bradley Beal.  It's kinda ironic, -if you want to put it like that - that now after having signed that max extension, like his name isn't even in the All-Star conversation this season.  But maybe Nunn, who's more of a defensive (i.e. diesel) type, will prove a better fit next to Beal.  But ultimately, it'll all be for naught if Kuzma bounces and Porzingis continues to spend half of his time on the injured list.