NBA free agency begins on Tuesday, June 30, and perhaps no team in the league has more unanswered questions than the Los Angeles Lakers. They’ve added one rookie in 3-and-D wing Cameron Carr and agreed to terms on a four-year max contract with Austin Reaves, but the free agencies of LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and nearly the entire rest of the roster remain in flux.
The Lakers have to find a balance between retaining their own players that fit alongside Luka Doncic and Reaves, while also improving the roster. But teams will be looking to add to their rosters as well, using some of the Lakers’ free agents to do so. That’s certainly the case with the Brooklyn Nets and San Antonio Spurs and Hachimura, according to NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer:
Brooklyn keeps coming up as a likely suitor, too, for the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura, league sources say. The Nets and Spurs are two teams we’ve heard have interest in adding Hachimura’s services, while the Spurs are also faced with resolving Harrison Barnes’ future as the veteran forward heads to unrestricted free agency.
Hachimura could be a popular player this summer after another fantastic season from the sharpshooting wing. The 28-year-old averaged 11.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, but shot 51.4% from the field and 44.3% from beyond the arc on 3.9 attempts per game. His 62.0 true shooting percentage ranked 32nd in the entire NBA and 18th among non-big men.
Both the Nets and the Spurs could use a player like that, someone who can thrive without the ball in their hands on offense and someone with size on the defensive end. Hachimura is not a stopper by any means, but his bulky 6’8″, 230-pound frame makes him at least a net neutral on that end of the floor.
The Nets will have cap space to throw at Hachimura, while the Spurs should have a full mid-level exception. What his number is will likely be a massive deciding factor in whether or not the Lakers bring him back.
Lakers have trade interest in Cameron Johnson
If the Lakers were in the market to replace Hachimura, they could do so by trading for Denver Nuggets wing Cameron Johnson. He is two years older than Hachimura but is on an expiring $23.1 million deal that the Nuggets might be willing to pay a team to get away from. He also had a better true shooting percentage than Hachimura last season, albeit in fewer games.
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