Lakers News: What Insider Believes Rui Hachimura's New Deal Means For Rotation Status

Is Rui a certified starter?

When NBA free agency kicked off earlier this summer, your Los Angeles Lakers wasted no time on signing players like Austin Reaves, D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura.

Especially Hachimura, who could have went anywhere if he wanted to, but the Lakers did not waste a single chance to bring the Japanese-American back to Los Angeles. 

According to reports from The Athletic's Jovan Buha, the Lakers expect Hachimura to "pick up where he left off in the postseason and remain a starter despite being a bench player during the regular season."

But what exactly does that look like? 

Rui Hachimura averaged 12.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 0.6 assists during the Lakers Western Conference final run in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, an enhancement compared to his stats when he was with the Wizards for the first half of the season. 

Rui Hachimura is signing a three-year, $51M extension with the Lakers, per @ShamsCharania pic.twitter.com/fy0mjofDbB

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 1, 2023

Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report believes that Rui Hachimura can have a larger workload than he is used to, as statistically, the Lakers play better when he's on the floor. 

"The Lakers still kept him in that reserve role, until they fell into an 0-3 hole against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals. They not only started him that night, they entrusted him with the heaviest workload of his L.A. tenure, as he fell a few seconds shy of logging 42 minutes. The Lakers, who lost that game by two points, were a plus-one with Hachimura on the floor."

"It makes sense for the franchise to see where he can head from here and how he can handle a larger role."

Could Hachimura be much more important to the Lake Show than we think? 

Time will tell.

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