Austin Reaves Discussion: How Much Is He Worth?

I think Reaves is a top 30-35 player in the league.

He can easily get $30 million per year.

 

Our boy has blossomed beautifully. Rui up next.

 

Anyone remember the last game of that miserable 2021-2022 season @Denver, when rookie Austin put up 31/16/10? Crazy to see how quickly he's come from fan-favorite 2nd round pick on that depressing team to legit member of a Big 3 with LeBron and Luka. You can't say enough about the work Austin has put in and how hard he plays every single night.

 

Me too, but I would trade Caruso for Reaves in a heartbeat! Every time!!

 

I'll trade him for Oreos and some milk

 

love simmons getting mad at the end about the spurs not poison-pilling him.

i was surprised, too, tbh. not much to lose there, and we'd just let caruso walk for MUCH less.

 

People who deemed Austin as “his replacement” were only looking at the color of their skin. Their skills couldn’t be more different.

 

i think the "replacement" was more emotional--here's a guy we found and developed that doesn't look the part but is great.

still wish we had both. great complementary skills/abilities.

 

By every measure, Reaves has already maximized the expectations put on an undrafted player. In Friday's win over the New Orleans Pelicans, Reaves scored 30 points for the fourth time in his past five games and set a franchise record with 15 3-pointers in a two-game span.

"He's the best undrafted player since Ben Wallace, and that guy's a Hall of Famer," a Western Conference executive told ESPN.

Even with Doncic on the team, Reaves has consistently had the ball. His usage rate since Feb. 10 is 23.6% -- higher than it was from the beginning of the season through Dec. 28, before L.A. traded point guard D'Angelo Russell to the Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith (21.8%).

And Doncic's addition has made opponents assign their strongest defenders to him, allowing Reaves to feast on more favorable matchups. In the two games against Chicago in late March, Reaves was guarded by either Kevin Huerter or Coby White on 78 possessions, while Doncic was manned by Josh Giddey for 71 possessions, per Second Spectrum. Two days after that second Bulls game, against Houston, Doncic faced Amen Thompson for 33 possessions, while Reaves was defended by Fred VanVleet for 34.

As a result, Reaves has become even more assertive on offense; he has averaged a career-high 3.1 isolation plays per game this season -- and 4.5 isos per game since Doncic arrived.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...layer-swing-nba-playoffs-lakers-austin-reaves

 

Not even fries ?

 

Lakers got a 25/5/5 high efficiency caliber player for $13 million per season. It'd be a travesty if they couldn't get at least one ring for the next two seasons... This is the best contract in the league and it isn't even close. Reaves could easily pull in $35 million per season.

 

<<<<< the way Austin Reaves plays it

 

Curious does anyone still think we're better with AR coming off the bench?

 

4 years 89M....lock him up Rob

https://hoopshype.com/2025/04/09/au...four-year-89-2-million-extension-this-summer/

 

i'm sure we'll offer it. there's basically zero downside to us maxing out his extension. i guess injury risk, but that's always there.

question is whether he'll do it. he stands to make substantially more if he opts out the next year, but if he gets hurt, he could stand to lose a bunch.

hopefully, he signs it. i think most guys wouldn't, though.

 

AR at 89M for 4 more seasons would be a fantastic deal for the Lakers. If he signs @ that number and we get Luka to extend, we're basicallly set for the foreseeable future.

 

There was one possession where Luka was the ball handler and it ended up AR being the guy in the short roll! He found Lebron on a drive for an easy bucket

That is an intriguing play design and one of the unique things you can do with this big 3 as all 3 are amazing playmakers. Not sure how defenses can stop something like that. You just don't normally having to deal with the guy who would normally put your number one defender on as a short roll giy