The Los Angeles Lakers enter the offseason after being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in round two, with few bigger decisions than deciding the future of Austin Reaves. This offseason, Reaves has a player option worth slightly under $15 million that he is guaranteed to decline after a career year, leaving him as an unrestricted free agent.
The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Dan Woike reported that rival executives predicted Reaves could command $40 million a season this summer. If that's the case, Rob Pelinka should make the tough decision to end the Reaves era in LA.
Don't get me wrong, Reaves is a phenomenal scoring talent, a top-10 shooting guard in the NBA, and someone half the teams in the league would die to have. However, for a Lakers team that already has Luka Doncic locked up in the backcourt, paying another guard a massive bag just doesn't seem like a smart path.
Given the continued defensive limitations Reaves shows and his struggles to be a real self-creator when Luka isn't on the court, drawing all the attention, he doesn't feel like a $40 million player.
The Lakers are in a position where they could have a hefty amount of cap space. Given how the team's lack of depth led to their demise in the postseason, it should be used to round out the roster.
Lakers could have three players for the price of one Austin Reaves
All season, it was clear this Lakers team lacked depth, and when players like Reaves and Doncic started to deal with injuries, those problems only became more magnified.
This team was missing a true starting-caliber center because the tandem of Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes has major limitations. Outside of Marcus Smart, this team had no true point-of-attack defender, and tasking Smart with that role at 6-foot-3 and at his age was simply unfair.
Both of these needs can be addressed in free agency and through the draft. The quality of players brought in to address those areas would be significantly worse than what it could be if Pelinka avoids paying Reaves.
When you have someone like Luka, your team is already going to be an offensive juggernaut. To be a true contender, you need depth and pieces that complement his style of play.
Sure, during his run to the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks in 2024, Luka had Kyrie Irving playing off him, giving him a strong secondary scorer. Some people feel AR can emulate that. While I don't disagree with that sentiment, adding a player to play that role through a trade like how the Mavericks did with Irving is the best route to doing so.
The best way to look at things, if you're Pelinka, is the Lakers could sign three players for the price of one. Hypothetically, LA could bring in Isaiah Hartenstein for $20 million per year, bring in Anfernee Simons at $10 million per year, and Kelly Oubre Jr. at $10 million per year, or sign just Reaves for $40 million. When you look at things that way, the answer to Reaves' contract seems extremely easy.
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