Rui Hachimura is headed across Los Angeles.
The forward has agreed to a two-year, $28 million deal with the LA Clippers, league sources confirmed to The Athletic on Monday. The contract includes a team option for the second season, according to a league source who was not authorized to speak publicly because the deal is not yet official. ESPN first reported the move.
Hachimura had drawn interest from multiple teams around the league, but the Clippers won out. He was also a player the Lakers wanted to keep, and he was on All-NBA point guard Luka Dončić’s list of preferred returning teammates.
Even so, the Lakers shifted their focus toward defense this summer and added Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton. Hachimura, a native of Japan and a friend of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, wanted to remain in Southern California.
For the Clippers, the appeal is obvious. Hachimura gives them a starting-caliber forward at a position of need, and he should fit into a lineup that could include Darius Garland, Brandon Ingram, Brook Lopez and possibly Kris Dunn. The Clippers are trying to build a team that can stay in the mix in the Western Conference, and Hachimura adds another proven piece to that plan.
His Lakers tenure showed both sides of his game. After spending much of his time as a starter, he accepted a bench role last season as the team found its best rhythm, and coaches praised the way he handled the adjustment.
In 68 regular-season games, he averaged 11.5 points while starting 41 times. Then the playoffs changed his market.
When injuries pushed him back into the starting five, he averaged 17.5 points over 10 starts and raised his value heading into free agency.
“I didn’t think about that. I don’t be thinking about that kind of stuff,” Hachimura said after the Lakers were eliminated in the second round.
“I’m just trying to play, you know, get through the season, make the playoffs, try to win this series. I was focused on that.
I haven’t talked - thought about it. I love this team, you know.
But at the end of the day, I’m not the one negotiating.”
On the floor, Hachimura brings a familiar kind of wing-forward scoring. At 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds, he turns 29 in February and runs the floor well, spots up from the perimeter and can punish defenses as a cutter when the ball moves. He also works effectively in the midrange and on the block, traits that mirror what former Clippers forward Marcus Morris Sr. gave Tyronn Lue over multiple seasons.
There’s also a possible overlap with the role John Collins filled last season before agreeing to sign with the Detroit Pistons in free agency. Collins shot 55.2 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from 3, while Hachimura posted 51.4 percent from the field and 44.3 percent from 3. In the Lakers’ 10-game playoff run this spring, he was even better, making 54.9 percent of his field goals and 56.9 percent of his 3s against the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder defenses.
The Clippers will still have to work around the parts of his game that don’t show up in the scoring column. Hachimura averaged career lows of 3.3 rebounds, including 0.6 offensive boards, and 0.8 assists per game.
Since the Washington Wizards took him ninth in the 2019 NBA draft, he has never averaged more than 0.8 steals or 0.4 blocks. He can guard wings, forwards and bigs, but he is not a rim protector, which was part of why the Lakers moved him out of the starting lineup in January to improve the defense.
His exit is another hit to a Lakers roster that reached the Western Conference semifinals. Of the seven Lakers who played at least 150 minutes in the 2026 postseason, only Austin Reaves remains. Hachimura joins Jaxson Hayes, Deandre Ayton, Luke Kennard, Marcus Smart and LeBron James in leaving.
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