After his breakout season ended in a whimper, Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves found himself in the trade rumor mill.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons believes Reaves has played his last game as a Laker.
“When Reaves gets traded this summer — and he WILL get traded – the stuff they [Lakers] get back for him is gonna make it seem worse that they [Mavericks] didn’t get him in the trade,” Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on May 11.
However, while Reaves isn’t untouchable, Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike reported that Reaves will only get traded on one condition.
“[Reaves] is not viewed as “untradeable” because almost no one in the NBA is untradeable. But if the Lakers are going to trade him for a center, they’re going to want one that is foundationally important — a build-around type and not a fill-in toward the obvious need they have at center (and will need to address in other ways).
“If one of the best centers in the NBA were available, the conversations might be different, but at least now, during the first part of the offseason, that just isn’t the case,” Woike wrote in his LA Times’ Lakers newsletter on Thursday.
Austin Reaves’ Big Payday is Coming
The Lakers highly value Reaves as their homegrown talent who has blossomed from undrafted into one of the rising stars in the league. Plus, he is on one of the team-friendliest contracts in the NBA today.
But the 26-year-old guard is about to get expensive.
Reaves is eligible to sign a maximum of a four-year, $89.2 million contract this summer, which is already a huge raise from his current four-year, $54 million deal. But even that maximum extension the Lakers can offer is below his market value which is why he is expected to decline and hit unrestrictred free agency in 2026.
According to ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks, Reaves will be eligible to sign “a contract worth up to 25% of the salary cap” of the Lakers or any team with cap space in the summer of 2026. Marks added that Reaves’ first-year starting salary in that max contract would be a whopping $42.5 million.
Getting Back to Work and Proving Himself All Over Again
Getty Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers vows to be better.
After their playoff elimination, Reaves vowed to come back next season better and stronger.
“I really just don’t think we played good,” Reaves told reporters after their Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. “Give credit to Minnesota, they played a really good series, but I think it comes down to just us not being us.
“And obviously, I didn’t have the series that I wanted to have, so you can point the finger at me. I really don’t care, I wasn’t good enough to help us be successful and I wish I could’ve done more. But I didn’t, I struggled. You live and you learn. I guarantee that I’ll get back to work this offseason and I’ll be better.”
Reaves averaged 16.2 points, on 41.1% overall shooting and 31.9% from the 3-point arc, 3.6 assists against 2.8 turnovers in their first-round loss.
It was a big letdown from Reaves, who averaged a career-best 20.2 points on 46% overall shooting and 37.7% from the 3-point line, 4.8 assists against 2.2 turnovers in the regular season.
“Just play better,” Reaves said of what he needs to do next season. “I feel like I’m talented enough to do that. As I feel like I’ve proved over and over again throughout my whole life.
“There are millions of people who would have never known me if I were never in this position, because quite frankly, nobody thought I was ever going to be in this position. So, I’ve continued to prove myself over and over again, and I’m going to go to work and do the same thing next year. That’s really it.”
