Rui Hachimura's Risky Choice: Clippers or Spurs?
The NBA dropped the hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers, and the shockwaves are still rolling across the league. Five future first-round picks gone. Kawhi Leonard fined. Steve Ballmer fined and suspended. A franchise that has spent years trying to claw its way out of the Lakers’ shadow suddenly finds itself buried under one of the harshest punishments in league history.
Across town, the Lakers are watching. So is Rui Hachimura.
The 28-year-old forward walked away from the purple and gold in free agency, choosing the Clippers on a two-year, $28 million deal that includes a team option in the second season. Same money he could have had elsewhere. Very different situation now.
A Choice That Looks Worse by the Day
On X, San Antonio Spurs analyst Dusty Garza put into words what a lot of people are thinking as the Clippers’ situation unravels.
“Watching the Clippers implode today, you have to wonder if Rui Hachimura regrets his July free agency choice,” Garza wrote, before laying out the alternate path that was on the table.
According to Garza, the Spurs offered Hachimura the full midlevel exception to slot in next to Victor Wembanyama on a young team loaded with draft capital and long-term upside. Same $28 million over two years. But the Clippers deal came with that second-year team option — control in the team’s hands, not the player’s. “Ouch!” as Garza put it.
When Hachimura hesitated, the Spurs pivoted. Quickly. They moved on and signed Tobias Harris, a veteran who fit their preference for short-term experience and leadership.
In hindsight, it’s hard to argue with the logic: San Antonio looks like the cleaner, safer basketball situation. A generational big man. A patient front office. A mountain of picks. The Clippers, after the league’s ruling on Leonard and the organization, look volatile at best.
Hachimura, though, clearly valued staying in Los Angeles. Lifestyle, comfort, familiarity — they all matter to players. He chose the city he knew, even if the franchise now looks like it’s heading into a storm.
How Real Was the Spurs Option?
NBA insider Brett Siegel poured some cold water on the idea that Hachimura-to-San Antonio was ever close to happening.
“Although the San Antonio Spurs were brought up as a potential suitor for Hachimura earlier this offseason,” Siegel wrote, “he wasn’t viewed as a realistic option for the franchise, sources said. While the organization did speak with Hachimura’s representation, the Spurs were targeting experience and veteran leadership on a short-term contract rather than a long-term commitment. That is why Tobias Harris was the Spurs’ top target, and they didn’t have much interest in Hachimura.”
So the door may not have been as wide open as it seems in hindsight. The Spurs talked. They listened. Then they zeroed in on Harris. Still, the contrast is striking: a stable, ascending project in San Antonio versus a Clippers team suddenly stripped of future firsts and facing hard questions about what comes next.
The Lakers’ What-If
All of this inevitably circles back to the Lakers. Should they have fought harder to keep him?
The front office’s actions tell their own story. Los Angeles chased Jonathan Kuminga aggressively in free agency while making what’s been characterized as a minimal push to re-sign Hachimura. They let a known quantity walk, then went hunting for upside.
That’s a gamble.
Hachimura is not a mystery. He’s a polished, productive forward who has turned himself into one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in the league. Last season, he drilled 44.3 percent from deep, one of the best marks in the NBA, while averaging 11.5 points per game. When the stage got bigger, his shooting got even louder: in the postseason, he hit 57 percent of his threes and nearly 18 points a night. Those are not empty numbers. That’s a player who warps playoff defenses.
He also fit the locker room. By all accounts, he had strong relationships with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and he understood how to play off stars, space the floor, and stay within himself.
Now look at the Lakers’ current depth chart. They’re still trying to solve the starting power forward spot. Still tinkering, still searching, still trying to find a player who can give them size, shooting, and reliability on the wing. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture Hachimura sliding right back into that role and stabilizing a rotation that has felt one piece short.
Instead, he’s on the other side of the hallway at Crypto.com Arena, tied to a franchise that just had its future gutted.
The league has made its ruling on the Clippers. The penalties are set, the picks are gone, and the fallout has only begun. For Rui Hachimura, for the Clippers, and for the Lakers watching from across the city, the real verdict will come later — when we see which franchise handled this crossroads with more clarity, and which one ends up regretting it the most.
