Spurs seek floor spacing to complement Wembanyama. Rui Hachimura's proven perimeter shooting makes him a prime target to further unlock San Antonio's offense.
The San Antonio Spurs are the second-place team in the Western Conference, meaning that their roster is in a pretty good spot.
But if they could pick one position to improve, it would most likely be at the power forward spot.
And that is the spot on the floor that some think they could upgrade through free agency.
In a recent article by Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz, he lists who he thinks should be every NBA team's top free agent target now that the trade deadline has passed. For the Spurs, he thinks that player should be Los Angeles Lakers' forward Rui Hachimura.
"As a locker-room leader and steadying presence with championship experience, the veteran Barnes is more valuable than his contributions on the floor and should be a real retention priority," Swartz writes. "That's not to say San Antonio is precluded from keeping their current talent and adding more. And if the Spurs want to shore up a weakness, frontcourt shooting is the spot to focus on."
This team needs shooting—reliable, volume shooting—from the forward spots. Hachimura checks that box in a big way. He has quietly become one of the more efficient perimeter-shooting forwards in the league, hitting over 41 percent from three in each of the last three seasons. That kind of consistency is exactly what San Antonio’s offense has been missing.
Not to say that Victor Wembanyama has been disappointing in the slightest, it's just that they haven't found the right big to put next to him.
Defensively, Hachimura has his limitations, and that’s been the main reason he hasn’t fully locked down a starting role with the Lakers. But context matters. Few teams are better positioned to cover for a shaky defender than the Spurs, who can lean on Wemby's generational rim protection and the defensive versatility of Stephon Castle.
With young guards like Castle and Dylan Harper unlikely to become high-level shooters overnight, surrounding them with proven floor spacers is essential.
Continuity has value. But fit matters too. If the Spurs are looking to maximize their next step forward, targeting Hachimura could be a smart, modern use of their flexibility—and a move that makes life easier for everyone sharing the floor with No. 1.