The Lakers are certainly going to make changes to the roster this offseason. After a frustrating season that ended in a gentleman’s sweep in the first round against the Nuggets, it’s nearly impossible to make the argument to run it back.

What changes will be made, though, is unclear. There have been plenty of rumors about the team chasing a third star, but none have become available yet, whether it be Donovan Mitchell, Dejounte Murray or Trae Young.

Even then, it’s not clear if that is the route the Lakers will take, given the nature of trade negotiations on top of whether that’s even the clear option the Lakers will pick.

Taking all that into account means the team may be active on the trade market but is not actively shopping its players. Specifically, when it comes to Rui Hachimura, the Lakers are not looking to deal him, as reported by Jovan Buha of The Athletic during his latest mailbag piece on his YouTube (emphasis mine).

“This is a bit of a tricky one to answer because I don’t think the Lakers are actively shopping Rui or actively looking to trade him. It’s just, if you look at their cap sheet and look at who are the tradeable guys, it’s really Rui, Vando, Austin, D’Lo – if he opts in – and Gabe and then some smaller contracts like a JHS, Christian Wood, Maxwell Lewis, etc…And then if you look at the numbers, Rui Hachimura is making the most money out of all these guys outside of D’Lo but D’Lo might not be available to trade depending on what he does with his player option. I think it’s more so the circumstance that the Lakers have to trade someone and when looking at the mid-size salaries, the guy they would love to keep is Austin Reaves and everyone else is movable to an extent. So, they’re going to try and use some of those guys.”

The end of Hachimura’s season was a frustrating one. In the playoffs, he was wholly outplayed by Michael Porter Jr. It put a sour note on a season that was actually a pretty strong one for the wing, particularly in the second half. After dealing with injuries, Rui found his role in the starting lineup and he and the Lakers flourished.

However, the reality is that if the Lakers are going to make a deal, Hachimura will be one of the names near the top of that list of outgoing players. As Buha said, he’s one of their bigger and more tradeable contracts.

On top of all that, Hachimura plays a position where the Lakers have a couple of options around him, making him more expendable. For example, if they move him out, Jarred Vanderbilt can step into his role quite easily.

Is it better to have him as LeBron James insurance, though? It’s never a bad thing to have too many 3-and-D wings. Having multiple different looks to be able to put out on the floor makes a team more dangerous.

And Hachimura does have good chemistry with LeBron and Anthony Davis. How much does that matter as well?

These are all the questions the Lakers are going to have to navigate in the upcoming trade discussions, no matter if it’s for a third star or someone else.