There has already been a lot of discussion regarding Austin Reaves becoming a free agent at the end of this season and how much money he could command on the open market. But there’s another starter on the Los Angeles Lakers who will also be an unrestricted free agent next summer in Rui Hachimura.
Since being acquired in 2023, Hachimura has grown into an extremely reliable and valuable contributor for this Lakers team. He has shot over 40% from 3-point range in each of the last two seasons and last year greatly improved as a rebounder and defender at the behest of coach JJ Redick.
Ideally, the Lakers and Hachimura could have come to an agreement on a contract extension this offseason or at some point this season, but right now it doesn’t look like that is in the works.
But regardless, Hachimura is not focused on that as the season is set to begin, rather he is simply thinking about how he can help the Lakers win this year.
“It’s the business side of it. I know I can’t really do anything about it,” Hachimura said at Lakers Media Day. “I just got to play my game. I just got to do whatever I need to do to help this team to win this year. It’s not going to be for me to kind of think about it, to do anything about it, because I can’t do anything about. It’s out of my control so I think I’ll just do whatever I need to do to help this team to win and then whatever comes after, it comes with it.”
There have been questions about whether Hachimura would remain in the starting lineup this year, but with LeBron James now set to miss the start of the season, the Lakers will likely need him to be more of an offensive contributor in his absence. Hachimura has proven himself capable of that and assuming he continues to do so, he will be in line for a nice payday next summer.
It is great to see that Hachimura is simply focused on helping the Lakers win and that is the most important thing to him. If he continues to be an impactful player that contract will come, and hopefully to remain in purple and gold.
Lakers coach JJ Redick sees growth in confidence and joy for Rui Hachimura
This is Rui Hachimura’s fourth year with the Lakers and his second under head coach JJ Redick and one thing that is standing out about the forward is how much confidence he is playing with and the joy he brings to the game every day.
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