The Los Angeles Lakers staff deserves credit for turning Austin Reaves into a bench star in the NBA, but that development is likely to lead to them being far outbid for his services in NBA free agency this summer.
Austin Reaves is one of the better stories on what has been a messy Los Angeles Lakers roster over the last two seasons. After going undrafted last year, the 24-year-old was able to land a two-way contract with the organization and played his way into a standard two-year deal last season.
While the Wichita State and Oklahoma alum was solid last season in playing just over 23 minutes a game for former head coach Frank Vogel, Reaves has taken a nice leap forward in 2022-23 under new head coach Darvin Ham.
This season Austin Reaves has nearly doubled his points per game in a little under 28 minutes and has boosted his three-point percentage from 32% to 38%.
He is set to become a restricted free agent this summer, and The Athletic’s NBA insider Shams Charania believes he could be a top candidate for a poison pill contract offer from a rival team as his value continues to boom.
“When you look into free agency this summer, the maximum that the Lakers can offer him is four years and $50 million, due to his restricted free agency status. That’s increasingly looking like his marketplace at least. So when you think about other teams, they can go higher than that. They can give him a poison pill offer sheet. The Lakers can match that because he is a restricted free agent. There’s going to be a significant market. This is a guy that plays the right way, he has an edge to him, he makes winning plays [and] he doesn’t really make mistakes.”
– Shams Charania
The Los Angeles Lakers have played well over the last month and have finally landed in one of the 10 available playoff spots. Players like Reaves have been huge in that success with Lebron James sidelined with a foot injury.
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