Rui Hachimura's looming contract decision felt like a formality at previously-encouraging points of the 2025-26 NBA season. Fast forward to January and the early success has not held up. The decision of what comes next for the Lakers and Hachimura has suddenly become murky.
Paying the sharpshooting forward in the summer of 2026 was generally believed to be the right move for Los Angeles. Perhaps even then it was an oversimplification of a more complex predicament. However, the added struggles from Hachimura as the year has gone by have made it especially more difficult to completely envision an uninterrupted long-term future with the Lakers.
Rui Hachimura went from irreplaceable to tradeable for the Lakers
The main appeal of Rui's game is crystal clear. The 27-year-old is the Lakers' best option to stretch the court. Shooting has plenty of value on a team with Luka Doncic.
Even after cooling off from his hot start, Hachimura is still knocking down 43.6 percent from beyond the arc. The major of those have been catch-and-shoot attempts, which the Lakers always need on the perimeter after one of their star playmakers kicks the ball out.
Hachimura's shooting percentage are strong. The main problem here is even this department does not making him bulletproof, mainly because the Lakers forward simply does not take enough attempts to truly make that great efficiency count.
Hachimura is only putting up 4.0 attempts per game from 3-point land. That ranks fifth on the team behind Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart, and LeBron James.
The going rate for Hachimura's services on offense is close to $18.3 million. By contrast, someone like Sam Merrill is also being largely employed for his ability to operate as a perimeter shooter by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Merrill is shooting 45.5 percent from deep on 7.8 attempts while earning around $8.5 million.
It's not like Merrill is only offering value through his knockdown buckets from the perimeter either. The Cavaliers guard is a capable defender on the other end.
Hachimura, meanwhile, leaves room to be desired on defense. It's not that Rui is unforgivably bad on that end, by any means. You would just want a 6-foot-8 forward who was 230 pounds to be more of a force guarding opposing teams.
Amid the Lakers' defensive struggles in 2025-26, Hachimura has actually registered one of the worse defensive ratings per 100 possessions on the team. All that and more just gave Rui a spot on the bench of late too.
With Feb. 5 rapidly approaching, the expiring contract of Hachimura could even be used as a trade chip for an upgrade. That would be more likely at this point than a payday in Los Angeles when the summer arrives.