Austin Reaves Discussion: How Much Is He Worth?

Night and day situation.

Bron and Klutch lost their footing in the front office by that point. Lakers have been expecting him to retire for the past 4 years but Bron keeps kicking father time's a**. If Bron was 27 years old and he or Rich Paul told Rob to jump, he'd ask how high (and will Rambis catch me? ).

Secondly, we're still in the trying to impress and keep our new star. Long way to go there.

Third, Rob always wants someone to share the blame pie if it goes belly up.

Fourth, Rob ain't calling all the shots anymore. He's got a new boss who's going to be more involved who talks to Luka on the regular.

If you don't think the team will give Luka any and everything he asks for that they can, then you're kidding yourself. And for the record, that's exactly what any team with a top 3-4 player in their prime will do.

 

still not sure why people are thinking 30m is a remotely possible figure. setting yourself up for disappointment, and, unfortunately for me, years worth of b****ing.

if we even open with a 30m offer, i think we run the risk of him pulling a nash and taking a higher but still below market offer from chicago or bkn without even giving us the chance to counter.

the more i read the discourse, the more this reminds me of that (disastrous) nash situation. "you can't win with nash and dirk", "sure, he's an allstar-level player, but he's a bad defender, so you're better off with role players", "nash gets picked on defensively in the playoffs", "nash can't handle the physicality of playoff defense". i mean, same exact stuff. read a (nba) history book.

ask mark cuban if he wants that one back.

you don't overthink this. you offer reaves the max at the opening of free agency, but present him with some scenarios where you ask him "hey, if you would be willing to take $X, we might be able to land X player. if you take a declining contract, it might help us avoid some apron stuff in the future. but if you just want max, that's also fine!"

 

Meh..Reaves aint going to no Chicago or Brooklyn, for a few more million. If they offered him 30, he'd counter with 35. and then settle for 32.

I think this, " Austin can just take his ball elsewhere" stuff, is amusing..not realistic.

 

i think misunderstanding unrestricted free agency is amusing.

"see, we'll just trade reaves to sacramento for..." no. reaves isn't under contract. you'll trade him nowhere he doesn't want to go. this isn't kawhi trade demand stuff, where you can test the player's resolve. there is no contract to trade.

there are at least two teams with the ability to just sign him to his max. there are probably several others who can either create the flexibility or present a scenario to his agent that involves him getting max money to play there (requiring us to participate in a S&T). what's funny is that the latter suggestion will everyone here claiming they then need US to agree. well, the reverse is true for everyone's reaves trade scenarios.

 

You are overestimating the potential "bidding war" for Austin Reaves IMO. Seriously Who? Why? Chicago already has Josh Giddy locked up, at 25M for the next 3 seasons, why should they pay Reaves 40M?

If Brooklyn wanted some star power, they could absorb the bulk of JA's salary in a trade. It's not like it's a slam dunk, that either of those teams are lining up, to throw all this money at him.

Then the obvious thing is..maybe Austin wants to play with Luka. So you are making assumptions, about how "offended" he might be in the first place.

 

because they're totally different players who play different positions, and having two really good young guards is better than having one? because reaves is far and away the best FA on the market, and you might be left with space-rental options otherwise?

you think using space for ja makes more sense than for reaves? if so, btw, we could totally let reaves walk and just absorb ja. memphis would pack his bags for him. terrible idea, of course. but bkn also knows this.

he's not taking a 25% discount on his only big nba contract just so he can play with luka. he's already played with lebron and luka. the experience has been had.

 

Again Why does Chicago need Reaves specifically? Who said shooting guard was thier number 1 priority? They can trade for AD if they wanted, what puts Austin to the head of their list? Their new GM is talking about defensive minded guys..is that Reaves?

I don't know what Brooklyn wants..what makes you think it's Reaves? To be thier 1st or 2nd option? He hasn't been that here, Morant sells tickets, he's still young too. We don't know who these teams are targeting. All we know is they have enough money to pay Austin; that doesn't mean he's thier top target.

Now you presume to speak for Austin like you are his agent? Maybe he likes LA, Luka, the Lakers, a chance to be in the playoffs every year on a team aspiring to compete for chips. That might be worth a hypothetical 25% discount. It's hypothetical because you don't know what someone else is willing to pay him.

My impression of Austin since we got him, doesn't jive with the guy, that's going to throw a fit and bounce, because he felt disrespected by a less than max offer.

 

Some people are acting like Luka and Austin are tied at the hip after a couple months. Luka just got done playing with Kyrie, one of his closest friends in the league, and even that didn't stop Dallas from making massive organizational moves around him over the years.

If anything, ownership is going to be even MORE obsessed with maximizing the Luka window long term. If they think Austin is part of that, great. If they think he's the best trade chip to improve the roster materially, he's gone.

Honestly, this is basically how the Dodgers operate too. They care about stars, chemistry, relationships, all of that... until there's a bigger move that gives them a better chance to win a title. Then sentiment goes out the window fast. That's just how smart organizations operate when the expectation is championships, not sentimental roster building.

Nobody outside of Luka himself is untouchable if this team keeps getting bounced in the 2nd round.