The Los Angeles Lakers are a better team when Rui Hachimura plays, particularly when he's on the court with Luka Doncic. Unfortunately, Los Angeles' most realistic path to acquiring meaningful talent during the 2024-25 season is to build a trade package around Hachimura.
It's the unfortunate reality that Los Angeles is already encountering as it's forced to decide howHachimura best helps the team reach its goal of contending.
Hachimura is preparing for his fourth season with the Lakers, which acquired him via trade in January of 2023. The team has yet to miss the playoffs since adding Hachimura, who has acted as the well-rounded forward they need on both ends of the floor.
With Hachimura entering the final season of his current contract, however, the harsh reality that his greatest value may be as a trade asset is beginning to set in.
Just when it seems as though the unfortunate right choice is to trade Hachimura, however, further context is applied to the situation. He isn't just a starting-caliber player, but one who has responded well to head coach JJ Redick and perfectly complements Doncic on both ends of the floor.
Hachimura is the Lakers' ideal fifth starter, its best trade asset, and a 2026 unrestricted free agent—a recipe for an agonizing season.
Rui Hachimura: A valuable starter and Lakers' best (realistic) trade piece
Hachimura has responded favorably to the drastic changes Los Angeles has undergone over the past year. He excelled under Redick, answering the call as a corner-crashing forward who turned in a second consecutive season of elite three-point shooting.
Hachimura's corner 3 proficiency was one of his calling cards, as well as a driving force behind the belief that he can excel alongside Doncic.
Hachimura shot 41.3 percent from beyond the arc, including a stunning figure of 44.5 percent on 110 corner three attempts. He also averaged his most offensive rebounds per game since 2019-20 and solidified his status as a reliably energetic defender.
Compounded by his uncanny ability to get the Lakers out of a rut with athletic plays on either end of the floor, Hachimura quietly helped set the tone for the team's success.
Unfortunately, with the Lakers unwilling to trade Austin Reaves, Hachimura is the most valuable trade asset on the roster. He has an expiring salary worth $18,259,259 that should put him right in the range of a surplus of high-level players Los Angeles may target this season.
Hachimura is also talented enough that a team could be willing to complete such a trade based on the return it would be receiving—an arguable separating factor from other Lakers in his pay range.
With this in mind, Los Angeles will soon have to decide between exploring the full extent of Hachimura's potential and trading him. It's an unfortunate position for the Lakers to find themselves in just as chemistry is being established, but it's the unfortunate nature of expiring salaries and limited trade resources.
Los Angeles may yet find other paths to improvement, but as it presently stands, Hachimura is both the best option to round out the starting lineup and the Lakers' most tradable asset.