If you’re an NBA athlete looking to maximize your earnings, a trip to Los Angeles for a year might be all you need to do.
For Lakers guard Austin Reaves, that’s exactly the situation he finds himself in amid a breakout season in LA. With averages of 11.2 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game on 52.8% shooting, he could reportedly command an offer of $10 million or more this summer.
“From what I’ve heard on that, it’s going to be more than Caruso money, that’s for sure,” said Jovan Buha. “It’s going to be double digits.”
Report: Austin Reaves expected to command more money than Alex Caruso in free agency https://t.co/JrT5WPIkH3
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) December 28, 2022
Players who get established with the Lakers, and become consistent contributors to the team, often get huge paydays when they hit free agency. It was true for Alex Caruso last year, and the same seems to be true for Reaves, who has developed into a quality bucket-getter for the Purple and Gold.
Will Austin Reaves Leave The Los Angeles Lakers?
The Lakers will obviously consider trading Reaves if the right opportunity presents itself, but it remains to be seen how much they’d be willing to offer when he becomes a free agent in the summer.
This season, while Reaves has played his role to perfection, there has been some frustration with all the losing.
Zooming out, Lakers’ defense has collapsed without Davis. They are 29th in defensive rating (124.7) and 27th in net rating (-9.9) over the past four games. The perimeter players are still defending as if they have Davis on the back line to clean up their mistakes, only it’s Bryant, Wenyen Gabriel or James, none of whom can replicate James’ interior defense.
“It’s hard when you lose somebody like AD,” Reaves said. “He’s the centerpiece to what we do defensively. … Obviously since he went out, the defensive rating hasn’t been good. So we have to figure out what we need to do to lower that and put ourselves in better situations. … It’s just too many points. You’re not going to win many games like that.”
We’ve seen the Lakers take care of their guys before and if Rob Pelinka likes Reaves, we could see them cover him like they covered Kyle Kuzma and Talen Horton-Tucker with exclusive contracts in the past.
For now, though, the Lakers are likely to stand PAT and wait for things to play out before they make any serious moves.
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