Austin Reaves is the gift that keeps on giving. The Los Angeles Lakers managed to secure their talented offensive weapon on a contract that is becoming more and more of a bargain by the day.
When Reaves was due for a new deal, the Lakers managed to lock him down for four years, $53.8 million. In the 2024-25 NBA season, where the Lakers guard is collecting close to only $13 million for this campaign, Rob Pelinka and the front office in Los Angeles are surely doing backflips somewhere off in the distance.
Reaves has enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2024-25
Everyone knew Reaves was a good basketball player heading into this season. That was never in doubt. 2024-25 is proving that the 26-year-old may be closer to great than good at this point.
Reaves is enjoying career highs in the following categories: points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, steals per game, player efficiency rating, win shares per 48 minutes, offensive box plus/minus, and overall box/plus minus.
Those are just some of the more notable ones. Getting 19-4-6 from Reaves for only $13 million this season is proving to be a massive steal for the Lakers. One can easily make the argument that AR15 is on one of the best contracts in basketball, far exceeding his dollar value with the production he offers.
Throughout the majority of the 2024-25 NBA season, Reaves has easily been the third-most important Laker behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis. That distinction should not change with the Lakers swapping out Davis for Luka Doncic.
One does not have to dig too deep for examples of just how much Reaves has grown as an NBA player. Look no further than his performance against the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 8.
Reaves added to his list of personal bests in 2024-25, dropping a career-high 45 points to lead the Lakers past a top four seed in the Eastern Conference. The impressive part was that the former Oklahoma Sooner delivered that type of game as the leading man for Los Angeles.
With James and Doncic both unavailable for the matchup, Reaves took a Lakers team that featured Rui Hachimura as his second-best player for the night and dropped 40+ to outgun a top 10 offense in the NBA.
It is fair to say that the fourth-year pro has exceeded expectations during the 2024-25 NBA season at the unofficial midway break of the campaign. That deserves to be rewarded with much more than a passing grade. Hopefully this doubles as a strong apology for floating him in mock trades before the NBA trade deadline.