If the best-case scenario of what the Los Angeles Lakers offseason looks like involves Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves all wearing purple and gold next season, Rui Hachimura may not have a spot on that team. The reasoning for that is simple: defense.
Hachimura has earned the right to be paid as a starting-caliber player in the NBA. His latest playoff run reminded everyone of just how good Rui can be at his best. With Reaves missing parts of the postseason, and Doncic unavailable altogether, it was a masterclass of sharpshooting that was put on by the Lakers forward.
Hachimura bumped up his scoring average from 11.5 points per game in the regular season to 17.5 in the NBA Playoffs. That included him dropping a blistering 56.9 percent of his 5.8 attempts a night from beyond the arc. Rui cemented himself as the career leader in 3-point percentage throughout postseason history in the process.
All of this equates to Hachimura being an undeniably good basketball player. The 28-year-old may just not be a great fit for the Lakers in particular. A trio of Doncic, James, and Reaves needs the wing beside them to be a versatile and relentless point of attack defender. That is not Rui.
Defensive overlap creates no space for Rui Hachimura among Lakers starters
Doncic, Hachimura, and James would all theoretically like to be operating in similar spaces on the defensive end. That kind of overlap does not serve the Lakers well in terms of deploying their personnel. Among the three, Rui is naturally the odd man out.
That is part of the reason why Hachimura permanently shifted to the bench in favor of Marcus Smart when all those players were healthy and available. Smart gave the Lakers what they needed defensively. Rui could not.
Even with Smart being the less talented offensive player, the fit took priority. The results spoke for themselves with the Lakers looking like a much better version of themselves when they had a legit defensive stopper to support the stars.
Hachimura's immediate future with the Lakers, assuming James is back, would have him returning to that bench role. With Rui being capable of garnering interest around the $15.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, would the Lakers really hand him that money to be a second-unit guy? Can they afford to with so many other holes?
Perhaps if James does decide to search for greener pastures, Hachimura returning to the Lakers as one of the starting forwards suddenly makes more sense. Otherwise, there are much less awkward ways to go about handling the construction of next year's roster.
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