{"id":772655,"date":"2026-06-28T08:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T08:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/772655\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T08:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T08:57:18","slug":"lakers-rui-hachimura-linked-to-2-suitors-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/772655\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers&#8217; Rui Hachimura linked to 2 suitors in free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two NBA teams are reportedly looking to pry Rui Hachimura<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-athlete=\"20002275\" data-name=\"Rui Hachimura\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Rui Hachimura\"><\/a> away from the Los Angeles Lakers<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-team=\"20000027\" data-name=\"Los Angeles Lakers\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Los Angeles Lakers\"><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the midst of a busy Lakers offseason, Hachimura has been viewed as the odd man out among L.A. free agents looking for a new contract. The 28-year-old played himself out of the Lakers\u2019 price range with an outstanding playoff run that set him up for a big payday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to NBA reporters Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, the Brooklyn Nets<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-team=\"20000008\" data-name=\"Brooklyn Nets\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Brooklyn Nets\"><\/a> and San Antonio Spurs<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-team=\"20000024\" data-name=\"San Antonio Spurs\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"San Antonio Spurs\"><\/a> are two teams that \u201chave interest\u201d in striking a deal with Hachimura.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two potential landing spots could not be more different for Rui. In Brooklyn, the Japanese forward could become a top offensive option next to Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-athlete=\"20000710\" data-name=\"Julius Randle\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Julius Randle\"><\/a>. In San Antonio, Hachimura could latch onto a contender who could very well be in the Western Conference Finals throughout the duration of any pact he signs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veteran forward Harrison Barnes<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-athlete=\"20000483\" data-name=\"Harrison Barnes\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Harrison Barnes\"><\/a> remains a free agent after losing his spot in the Spurs\u2019 rotation last postseason. Hachimura could provide San Antonio with a younger, better version of Barnes should he decide to trade in his Tinsel Town address for one closer to the Alamo. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hachimura isn\u2019t the only Lakers veteran who could land a better deal elsewhere. The Purple and Gold <a href=\"https:\/\/larrybrownsports.com\/basketball\/lakers-danger-losing-marcus-smart-free-agency-rockets\/759747\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">could also lose Marcus Smart to another Texas team<\/a><a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-athlete=\"20000560\" data-name=\"Marcus Smart\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Marcus Smart\"><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Rob Pelinka committing big money to Austin Reaves<a class=\"maisdio-link\" href=\"#\" data-sport=\"nba\" data-athlete=\"20002720\" data-name=\"Austin Reaves\" data-track-content=\"\" data-content-name=\"mai-sportsdataio-link\" data-content-piece=\"Austin Reaves\"><\/a>, the cap crunch may very well force the Lakers to thin out its roster for the sake of salary flexibility going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two NBA teams are reportedly looking to pry Rui Hachimura away from the Los Angeles Lakers. In the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,150,6,671,1012],"class_list":["post-772655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-rui-hachimura"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116826907806390771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}