Rui Hachimura to remain with the Lakers for 3 years at $51 million! 2.71 times the salary of last season to challenge the NBA in his 5th season!

Last Updated on 07/02/2023 by てんしょく飯

Rui Hachimura (25), a restricted free agent in the NBA, agreed to re-sign with the Lakers for three years at $51 million, according to ESPN on June 30.

The NBA average annual salary is $17 million (¥2.449 billion), about 2.71 times higher than Rui Hachimura’s $6.26 million salary last season.

Yuta Watanabe (28), a FA from the Nets, has reached an agreement with the Suns, the Associated Press reported. The two Japanese players’ new-season departures were settled on the first day of the FA negotiation ban.

The Lakers, one of the NBA’s biggest clubs, did not let Hachimura go next season, re-signing him to a three-year contract worth more than $50 million. Hachimura himself is also a strong believer in staying, saying, “It’s up to the Lakers. As for me, I want to stay,” he said.

Hachimura himself experienced his first move in his fourth NBA season, the 2022-2023 season, when he left the Wizards, who selected him ninth overall in the first round of the 2019 draft, and traded him to join a team that has won 17 championships, tied for the most in the NBA. The team had previously been in the bottom half of the Western Conference, but the addition of several players, including Hachimura, helped the team make the playoffs (PO).

Hachimura made a particularly strong impact in the playoffs, playing in 16 games and working well with core players such as superstar LeBron James (38) and Anthony Davis (30). In the first round of the playoffs, he scored a team-record 29 points in the first round of the playoffs. He proved to be an indispensable member of the team, becoming the first Japanese player to reach the Western Conference finals.

Hachimura’s own departure has been decided, but he has already announced that he will not play in the World Cup (Okinawa, etc.), which opens on August 25. Through the Japan Association, he explained that he made the decision after giving priority and consideration to his future NBA career. This offseason, he will “concentrate on training and getting in good physical condition” to prepare carefully for his fifth season in the NBA, where expectations are high for even greater things to come.

The highest salary for the 2022-2023 season was Steph Curry (Warriors) at $48.07 million, while Hachimura’s colleague LeBron James of the Lakers was paid $44.47 million. Nikola Jokic (Nuggets), last season’s champion and Finals MVP, agreed to a five-year, $264 million (about ¥35.6 billion at the time) deal, the highest in NBA history, for 22 years, with a fifth year reportedly worth $60 million (about ¥8.6 billion). Shohei Ohtani of the MLB Angels will be paid $30 million this season (approximately 4.35 billion yen at the time of the announcement last October).