The Lakers’ offseason plans are headlined by what to do with the impending contract extension negotiations for Austin Reaves and LeBron James.
Jovan Buha, a renowned NBA analyst who covers the Lakers, has revealed that the front office will almost certainly prioritize Austin Reaves over LeBron James if faced with the dilemma of choosing which one of them receives a $40 million contract.
“There are two big differences between LeBron and Austin right now. One, LeBron is a short-term solution. Austin is viewed by the franchise as a long-term cornerstone,” said Buha on his own podcast’s most recent episode.
“So, if it comes down to would you rather pay Austin $40 million for the next five years or LeBron 40 million for one year, they’re going to prioritize the long-term contract here. So, that’s like Austin is more of a priority for the Lakers than LeBron is. That’s just a fact. So, that’s one part of it.”
“The second part of it is that Austin is going to have a market, and LeBron, maybe he wants to go to Chicago or Brooklyn. I do not foresee that. But the issue with LeBron is that all of the teams that are going to want LeBron are going to have somewhere between a vet minimum offer and a non-taxpayer MLE offer. So LeBron can’t leverage the market against the Lakers the same way Austin can.”
“Austin can go get a monster contract offer from Chicago or a monster contract offer from Brooklyn and put pressure on the Lakers to be like, ‘They’re about to pay me $40 million annually. You need, you know, maybe I’ll take a haircut off of that, but you need to give me that fifth year, and it needs to be pretty close to 40 million.’ LeBron is not gonna have the same leverage.”
“Like, so on some level, like I think it’s really a leverage thing where Austin has leverage in terms of being a long-term piece for the franchise, where LeBron is at most a two-year piece, not, you know, one to two-year piece. And then Austin could actually go out and get a max offer from people that LeBron is just not gonna go get because he doesn’t want to go play in Brooklyn or Chicago, and he doesn’t really fit their timeline either.”
“So that’s where I think that the key thing is, like it’s not about who’s better or who is better for next season. It’s about the longer term; the Lakers want to retain Austin and retain that asset, and then Austin also is going to have some more competition on the market than LeBron is.”
“LeBron can’t say, “Oh, the Cavs are going to pay me $40 million. You have to pay me $40 million.” That’s just not possible. So, that’s where I think, from a leverage perspective, Austin has more leverage in this situation. And Austin, I think, is going to get a bigger contract with the Lakers because of that, or partly because of that.”
While the Lakers’ front office has made it clear that it intends to extend both players (if LeBron decides to come back instead of retiring), they may not have the money to sign both players to the max contracts and still build a championship-contending roster around them.
They have approximately $90 million in empty cap space for 2026-27 before entering the luxury tax room and potentially going into the first or second apron, with some players yet to opt into their player options.
With space to make about five new additions to the team (including the 2026 first-round pick), they will likely not have enough to offer both LeBron James and Austin Reaves a contract valued over $40 million for the upcoming season and still have championship-contending pieces around them.
LeBron James has apparently made it clear that the only event in which he takes a pay cut is if the Lakers’ front office shows him that they have championship-contending pieces in mind to add to the roster with that money. Meanwhile, Reaves has not reportedly exerted any pressure on the Lakers’ front office and wants to “run it back” with LeBron James.
Austin Reaves averaged 22.9 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.6 rebounds while going 48.1% from the field and 35.0% from beyond the arc in the 2025-26 regular season and postseason combined.
LeBron James, on the other hand, averaged 21.3 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.2 rebounds while going 50.5% from the field and 31.9% from behind the three-point line in the same duration.
Both players had a nearly similar performance last season, which was plagued by injuries for the Lakers. If any of these players gets a $40 million contract for next season, the other can make a compelling argument to deserve one as well.
But the front office may not be willing to test the luxury tax limits and potentially enter the first or the second apron. Therefore, as Buha anticipated, I agree that Reaves might agree to take a pay cut to keep James on the roster for next season.
But the main question is, to what extent is LeBron James willing to take a pay cut with the Lakers so that they can add better roster pieces to avoid another second-round exit? It will be interesting to see what the Lakers’ front office decides here with the two key players.
