Both Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura came up big for the short-handed Los Angeles Lakers during the 2026 playoffs. While Kennard fizzled out somewhat after a hot stretch in the first round, Hachimura was phenomenal throughout most of LA's postseason. These were huge contributions for a team missing its best player.
And with both Kennard and Hachimura entering unrestricted free agency this summer, their playoff offerings have convinced certain Lakers fans that LA should re-sign both players. Other observers disagree.
Lakers writer Jovan Buha, for example, believes the Lakers should move on from both Kennard and Hachimura this summer on account of neither player possessing the processing abilities on the perimeter that define the best teams in the NBA.
Are Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura bad fits for the Lakers moving forward?
"Looking at the perimeter talent that [the Spurs, Thunder, and Knicks] have ... Rui and Luke would be toward the bottom, if not at the bottom of that list from a defensive perspective, and I think Rui would probably be at the bottom of that list from a processing perspective," Buha said on a recent episode of his Buha's Block podcast.
Buha went on to assert that processing the game and making decisions with the ball have always been issues for Hachimura.
Shooting the ball certainly isn't an issue for Hachimura, nor is it for Kennard. But that's not the point that Buha was trying to make. His point was that, beyond shooting, Hachimura and Kennard don't bring a ton to the table, and when you look at other wings on contending teams, these players are defensive demons with high energy and elite athleticism.
This isn't to say that Hachimura and Kennard aren't good NBA players; they certainly are. Buha is merely saying that if the Lakers want to contend with the best teams in the NBA, they need to legitimately look at what those teams are doing and ask themselves, Can we compete with that in a playoff series, and how?
Lakers' Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard decisions aren't about basketball alone
The NBA is a copycat league. It's a reactionary league. We've already seen this with the meteoric rise of Victor Wembanyama: Every team around the league is wondering who they can acquire, or what schemes they can employ to contain Wemby in the years to come.
While I don't completely agree with Buha's take that the Lakers wouldn't be able to find success with Hachimura and Kennard (I think both players are a tad more dynamic than the one-trick-pony status Buha heaped upon them), the financial situation that the Lakers are in makes me ultimately side with Buha's recommendation, anyway.
With the Lakers staring at a cap crunch of sorts, why compete with other suitors for Hachimura and Kennard, who will surely receive some nice offers after their respective postseasons? You're bound to end up spending decent money on either or both of them in that scenario. Based on both Buha's basketball reasoning and the fact that LA isn't in a position to freely spend, I do think the Lakers should feel great about moving on from Hachimura and Kennard and spending that money on some young athleticism and/or putting some of it towards a new center.
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