Lakers News: Insider Projects Free Agent Price For Rui Hachimura

LA gave up a lot of future equity for the young forward.

Los Angeles Lakers reserve combo forward Rui Hachimura has not been the automatic energy-shifting scoring option (especially on catch-and-shoot threes) that LA was no doubt hoping for when it offloaded three second-round draft picks and the Ghost Of Kendrick Nunn for his services in January. 

That said, he has shown plenty of promising flashes, and may be worth retaining as a restricted free agent, if the price is right! Across 23 Lakers games this season, he’s averaging 10.1 points on .475/.333/.729 shooting splits and 4.7 rebounds a night.

In a new episode of The HoopsHype Podcast, host Michael Scotto and The Athletic’s Jovan Buha unpacked Hachimura’s future with LA.

"After trading away three second-round picks to acquire Hachimura, the Lakers would seemingly have optical pressure to match a potential offer sheet, and they clearly value him as a player," Scotto opined.

"I think the Lakers are going to try to retain him," Buha suggested. "I think his range is around the non-taxpayer MLE. I think something in that 2/20 or 3/30 (range). Looking at his numbers in Washington versus LA, they’re almost identical across the board… I think the Lakers are going to make an offer around $10 million, and if he’s looking for more or another team is willing to come in and make a bigger offer, they might be willing to walk away. They were high enough on him to trade those three second-round picks, and they want to keep him."

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