For the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans, when you hear teams like the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls brought up as free agency competition for retaining Austin Reaves, it is tough not to chuckle. The Atlanta Hawks, on the other hand, might be no laughing matter.
The Bulls and Nets are tough to take seriously because of just how bad they are. Reaves has openly talked about preferring a winning environment. Any big-money contract that could come from Brooklyn or Chicago feels meaningless as a result. That offered peace of mind to the Lakers about being the biggest major player in the sweepstakes who had both money and a winning situation.
The Hawks stand out as one of the few others who could satisfy both desires. Atlanta established themselves as a legitimately good team in the second half of 2025-26. It would take a bit of cap maneuvering, but Atlanta could create the wiggle room to offer Reaves a sizable deal in the summer.
Sam Vecenie explained: "Plan A for them, I might try to sign Austin Reaves. ... You have to remove the [Jonathan] Kuminga deal and you have to then find maybe a few million dollars of cap space here or there. ... It probably [takes] a full max to get him to Atlanta."
Hawks won't make it easy, but the Lakers should still be the frontrunner
Vecenie thought Reaves and the Hawks were a perfect fit. When evaluating how impactful CJ McCollum was for Atlanta after he got traded there, it is tough to not see the value in how much more Reaves could give their team in a similar but expanded role.
Bringing in AR would help the Hawks further establish themselves in the Eastern Conference after giving the keys of the franchise over to their young core and being instantly rewarded for that decision last year. It would solidify them among the real playoff threats in that conference.
For whatever calming of the nerves is needed for Lakers fans, Vecenie did ultimately predict the Hawks would not win the sweepstakes. So, while Los Angeles might have real competition here, they are still the favorites.
There might be some nervousness about seeing the Reaves situation play out similarly to that of someone like Luka Doncic's former teammate Jalen Brunson. Even so, the Lakers just need to do their part and offer a fair deal.
The mutual interest is clearly there. The partnership with Doncic has been strong all year. The flight risk with these types of situations is never zero, given Reaves' pending unrestricted free agent status. There just has not been enough evidence to think the Lakers guard wants to be anywhere else.
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