While paydays are aplenty in free agency, the fluidity of it all can leave some on the outside looking in.
Despite the Lakers being swept out of the playoffs, Rui Hachimura came away a big winner after his postseason performance. Most predicted he would receive one of those paydays once the offseason rolled around as a result.
However, as we discussed on Wednesday, LA’s flurry of moves left him as the odd man out, as some had predicted. At the time, the Spurs were still a contender for him. However, San
Antonio soon chose Tobias Harris on a two-year deal over Rui.
Now, Rui is still without a new contract and the teams that can and would have interest in him have dwindled significantly. The result, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported on Thursday, is people around the NBA wondering if he may be returning to Los Angeles after all.
That Hachimura remains unsigned caused several league sources to wonder whether the Lakers are planning some sort of trade or using the stretch provision on perhaps Jarred Vanderbilt or Deandre Ayton to be able to offer Hachimura more.
There are two reasons why this is still unlikely.
First, the Lakers would still need to do some reshuffling of the roster to shed one or both of Jarred Vanderbilt or Deandre Ayton’s salaries. That could come via an unlikely trade or by waiving and stretching one of them, with Vando being the far more likelier option.
Even if they are able to open up cap, there aren’t any realistic scenarios in which Rui signs a deal close to his value or the deal he was just on. Perhaps there’s an avenue where the Lakers sign him to a short-term deal with the premise of paying him more money in the future, but the end result of him being underpaid in year one remains the same.
For Rui to get to that point, the market would have to completely dry up on him, which is already close to happening, and he’d have to value being in LA with teammates and a staff he already has a report with as opposed to starting anew.
I won’t pretend to know Rui’s thinking in that aspect, but it does feel like things are still many steps away from that end point. A surprise trade or a new team being interested could change things quickly and Rui could sign a new deal elsewhere, still.
But after seeming like a done deal that he was gone on Wednesday, it looks like the door may still be cracked open.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
