Rui Hachimura has endured a fairly turbulent 2025-26 season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He's missed 14 games, lost his spot in the starting lineup, rejoined the starters, and then returned to the bench while continuing to deal with injuries.
Though the Lakers appear to have settled on a starting lineup that excludes Hachimura, the door is open for him to reclaim his spot as the top forward on the roster after LeBron James.
Despite the changes to Hachimura's role and availability, his place as one of the most important players on Los Angeles' roster remains intact. His three-point shooting provides an invaluable source of ideal spacing and his defensive quality has given JJ Redick dependability in an area where he'd long struggled to find it.
Hachimura has also been the epitome of selflessness as he's seamlessly transitioned from the starting lineup to the second unit and continued to provide positive value.
Unfortunately, Hachimura has played just 24.1 minutes per game over his past 12 appearances. That's a rather sharp decline from the 28.5 he's averaging on the season. His minutes had also decreased across each of his final three games before his recent calf injury.
Piece all of this together and it paints a troubling picture of Hachimura falling out of favor. Thankfully, the door remains wide open for him.
Rui Hachimura can easily reclaim his spot as Lakers' No. 2 forward
Jake LaRavia has played a pivotal role for the Lakers in 2025-26 and a healthy LeBron James is finding his rhythm as the offensive No. 3. Both of those facts could potentially hinder Hachimura in his pursuit of a larger share of the minutes distribution.
The saving grace for Hachimura, however, is that LaRavia is an inefficient three-point shooter and the Lakers need help with their spacing. Los Angeles head coach JJ Redick acknowledged as much.
"You need Smart for his ball handling, you need Smart for his defense, you need Rui for his shooting. Those pieces are important to complement everybody."
Redick is spot on, as Hachimura's three-point shooting is nothing short of essential. He's converting at a clip of 43.8 percent from beyond the arc, which is the highest mark on the team after Luke Kennard. He's also third in conversions behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
That alone makes Hachimura borderline indispensable, as the Lakers rank No. 23 in three-point field goals made and No. 17 in three-point field goal percentage.
Come the playoffs, non-shooters will be even more difficult to feature at a perimeter position. That makes Hachimura's combination of three-point shooting and defense all the more valuable to a team that already knows what it can expect of him in a postseason setting.
With Hachimura already helping the Lakers make three trips to the playoffs, including a run to the 2023 Western Conference Finals, perhaps it's only a matter of time before he reclaims his prominence.