Austin Reaves Discussion: Overachiever Who Underachieved

jeezus cryst …. there’s a frenzy now to jack up his price for us to the MAX. If he plays huge in this series and the next ( Toklat has ordained it) ….. it probably will cost that. Championship contributor and pedigree …. Check!

 

lol exactly. right up until we sign him, we can't afford it, and he'll want his own team or some nonsense. the second we sign him, he's overpaid trash. book it.

 

Yeah I think they want that poison pill contract.

Either way, the Lakers will match it. Because having Austin at $12m/13m for next 2 years while we still have LeBron/AD/DLO(?) makes him one of the best bargains in the NBA.

The latter half of his contract being at 38/39M will hurt if he's not improving every year...but he'll only be 28 at the end of this deal so it's possible he'll actually just be entering his prime at that point.

If he really is as good as Gordon Hayward...and he's not injury prone...he COULD potentially be worth that amount in 3-4 years.

There's no reason the Lakers shoudl pass on Austin this summer. Not even a poison pill contract.

 

Honestly I do think Reaves is worth 4yr/100M. He's showing it in these playoffs literally playing against hall of fame / all star level backcouts in Ja/Bane and Steph/Klay. Now he has to face Murray/KCP which will be difficult for him offensively (KCP will be guarding him likely) and defensively (he will probalby have to guard Murray at times).

 

It's really cool he's had his big moments when family and friends have shown up. I'll say the same thing I said in the Grizz series... make them part of the traveling party.

Jeanie can afford it with the playoff ticket sales rolling in.

 

Am even seeing “white privilege” in the comments to this MAX cost to the Lakers media push. Same crap we got about Caruso being all hype because of color.

 

Jordan Poole salary next year: $27,455,357 + incentives
Austin Reaves salary next year: $2,189, 698

Both are Guards. Poole is listed as 6'4"; Reaves is 6'5". Poole is 23; Reaves is 24. Poole went to Michigan and was drafted in the 1st round; no NBA team drafted Reaves after 5 years at Wichita State and Oklahoma (he missed a year due to injuries).

Here's how they matched up in the 2022-23 playoffs so far (Poole is done): (what's not listed here is Reaves's great defense; Poole's defense is comparatively nonexistent):



HILBILLY KOBE gonna get PAID!

 

I would maybe be worried if it were KCP from three years ago, but he’s a bit older now. Austin will be just fine.

 

I’m sooooo sick of all the low key racist jabs if a player is white. There is only ONE race. The human race.

 

…. and Austin is actually almost 6’6”. Just a quarter inch shy. He looks it out there too and plays bigger than his size in certain ways as needed.

 

Rashad McCants said the only reason AR was playing was 1.) the Lakers "are trash" and 2.) "He white."

Whattya gotta say NOW, Rashad?

 

many pages ago, i outlined a scenario in which reaves might consider a 2-year deal with a player option to get the big bag next year. no talking head has said it, but that would actually be worse for us than a poison pill deal. at least if we match that, we don't lose him for nothing.

so, as much as everyone's afraid of the poison pill contract, i'm not sure the lakers are. i think we'll offer him the max we can (with his stipulations on the option year*) and tell him that if he can secure a mega-offer, we'll evaluate that.

*for reasons mentioned above, we might play hardball on a player option at year 2. that's probably worst case for us.

 

I made this Poole comp mostly 'cuz Poole seems like an overpaid d-bag now. THIS hit my local paper today. Ya gotta wonder. Probably mostly gossip, but I always thought Poole was a prima donna anyway.

 

I am so relieved we will not have to listen to Mark Jackson call him Austin Powers in the WCF

 

Oh I would NOT like that deal lol. The 2-year deal with a PO is not in our best interest at all...and I'd rather just give him what he wants now and have him "locked in" for 4 years.

Reaves is also a significant asset for us if we needed to use him in a trade. You cannot let him walk simply for that reason.

Even if he gets poison pilled, plenty of teams would jump on him in a trade.

 

the issue (that the media is trying to hammer home to create a story, but is true) is that the best we can offer him is below market value (4/50, player option on third year). to get more, he NEEDS someone to offer an RFA deal. everyone is like: someone is going to screw the lakers and offer him an RFA deal, but tbh, the biggest screwjob would be the long game--wait until FA next year, when he's unrestricted, and offer him a max then.

again, i'm not really worried about any of it, just saying that the nightmare scenario isn't a big offer sheet. we'll just match that, no problem. we have no salary on the books when the balloon payments are due. the danger would be if no team ponies up the big offer, and his agent tells him to bet on himself, take a two-year, and then be free to walk next year. we'd then have his full bird rights, so we probably keep him, but it's not a lead pipe lock like this year.

this isn't exactly the same, but the chandler parsons situation was somewhat similar in houston a while back when dallas got him. in that case, it was an RFA offer, but iirc, there were some odd machinations behind the scenes to make that possible. and it was similar in that this was a udfa/2nd rounder who was successful and high profile.

 

finally saw some of his college highlights, nothing new, what hes doing now he did exact same in college, just all around does good things

 

what's amazing is that he is literally doing the exact same things against much better competition. when i watched his college film with all the isolation drives and tough finishes, i was like...that's cool, but nba players are going to end all that. narrator: they did not. i don't know how our scouting department saw that it would translate (or even if they did--they may have thought like i did that he'd be a good catch and shoot guy who was tough and smart), but wow, easily one of the best undrafted guys of all time already.