LeBron James and Austin Reaves are set to be two of the biggest names in free agency this offseason, and The Athletic’s Sam Amick thinks the Los Angeles Lakers will find it a bit difficult to bring both of them back. Amick appeared on the latest episode of the Run It Back podcast, where he was asked how likely it is that both James and Reaves are Lakers next season, on a scale of 1 to 10.
“Probably a six if we’re talking about both,” Amick said. “… The Austin one, I think it’s done. Man, it’s just like it’s hard… The Lakers, it’s challenging because they have got to get better. And if they just re-sign LeBron, re-sign Austin, re-sign Rui [Hachimura], that’s not getting better. That’s maintaining, right? Well, all of their guys are signaling like I will stay if you don’t disrespect me with the number.
“Like that’s basically kind of what the shared messaging is,” Amick continued. “… I think if Austin gets paid in the kind of way that keeps him in town, then there’s not enough money for LeBron to feel respected, and then I could see him going up the coast and maybe doing the Warriors thing. So I feel like there’s just not enough money to make all those guys happy with the Lakers.”
The Lakers have Bird Rights for both Reaves and James, so they can exceed the salary cap to sign both of them. In this apron era, though, you can’t really afford to have just a few players eating up a significant chunk of your cap.
The Lakers will see Luka Doncic’s three-year, $165 million extension kick in from next season. You can have one other massive contract with that on your books, but two?
It has been reported that Reaves is not interested in taking a hometown discount to stay with the Lakers. The 28-year-old is expected to opt out of his $14.9 million player option for 2026-27, and he would then be eligible to sign a five-year, $241 million max deal.
If that is what’s going to take to re-sign Reaves, who averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in 2025-26, then how much would the Lakers be comfortable offering James? You’d imagine they’d love it if he wants about $20 million a year, but he is reportedly going to seek a max contract from them as well.
You’re simply not going to be able to put together a good enough roster around Doncic, Reaves, and James in this scenario. As Amick also stated, the Lakers, who were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Semifinals, have to get better, so just re-signing their free agents and running it back isn’t the recipe for success.
So, the Lakers might have to pick between James and Reaves. The former being 41 years old might end up being the reason why they go with the latter.
As for where James could go, Amick mentioned the Golden State Warriors there. The Warriors have been strongly linked to the 22-time All-Star, but they aren’t going to be offering him the max either.
James would probably get the $15.1 million nontaxpayer midlevel exception from the Warriors. Would he not feel disrespected and be willing to take that kind of a deal from another team after averaging 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2025-26? It’s hard to say.
All in all, it will be fascinating to see how this free agency pans out. The Lakers, in particular, have a lot of big decisions to make, and they cannot afford to make too many mistakes.
