Austin Reaves Discussion: How Much Is He Worth?

I haven’t watched enough of Ayton to see how effective he can be as a defensive anchor, but if he can just be League average decent on defense, that will automatically make us much better since Hayes might be one of the worst defensive bigs in the game.

 

A national chain of hot dog carts with (a)beer licenses …. I like it! And Austin wouldn’t be a p**** like Leonard expecting the money while not doing anything. He’d show up!

 

lebron as draymond is the way.

 

i can't remember who came up with the hot dog stand metaphor, but it wasn't me. i just ran with it (happily). maybe elgin or pioneer? someone needs the proper credit.

 

It’s alright … Elgin or Pioneer “licenses” nobody could get drunk with their hot dogs.

 

I see so many clickbait articles and videos acting like the Lakers just made some blockbuster deal. I don't open them. I go to ESPN, and if news hasn't broken there yet, I know it's completely BS. People that do that should be deplatformed and banned IMHO.

 

I agree, I usually just ignore them, but once in awhile I go and post that their post/video is just clickbait and that they are lying bastards!!

 

I'm thinking, with the way AR seems to think from what he says in interviews, that IF he does in fact take it to an even higher level of play and have his best year yet, that the hometown discount would be between 32-34M per maybe with a PO at the end. Hell of a big balls bet on himself ... again.



Austin Reaves again proving his worth is par for the course entering key season
Dan Woike
Sept. 29, 2025 4:00 am PDT
LONG BEACH, Calif. — As the sun set and the sky turned from blue to orange, Austin Reaves found his way. For nine holes at one of his favorite patches of grass on the planet — the Virginia Country Club — the Los Angeles Lakers guard pushed drives and pulled putts. And by the time he got ready to tee up the ball for the 10th time on June 25, the wheels were totally off.

“It was bad,” he remembered with a laugh.

The 45 shots all over the front nine could probably be forgiven for the plus-1.1 handicap considering the circumstances. With every slice and every fade, one of the 29 other NBA teams was making a decision about their future in the NBA Draft — at a time when he just forfeited some control over his.

The weekend before that draft, Reaves turned down a contract extension with the Lakers — a formality, sure, but still a serious decision for both the guard and the only NBA organization he’s known. Turning down the $89.2 million offer made by the franchise was a bet on himself and the much larger payday that’s headed his way after the upcoming season. But he also knew it left him vulnerable.

And maybe, the thought about being shipped away from the team and city where he wants to play made the cup look a little smaller and the fairways a little tighter.

“I thought that there was a good chance for, like, a week after I declined the extension that there was a possibility I’d get traded,” Reaves told The Athletic in late August. “I mean, it’s still a possibility.”

When training camp begins Tuesday, Reaves will officially start the most important season of his professional career, one that will determine where he’ll spend his prime, how much he’ll make and whether fear of the NBA’s salary caps at the first and second apron will stifle his ability to get a massive contract.

“Still to this day, I sit there and think about, relative to any life, that is a lot of money — a lot, a lot, a lot of money,” Reaves said of the Lakers’ offer. “It’s way more money than if you would’ve ever had. … If you told me when I was in 10th grade … it’s way more money than I thought was ever possible.”

“Way more money,” though, might just be possible. The Athletic spoke with team and league sources who expect Reaves to earn more than $35 million a year on his next deal, with sources from two teams (neither being the Lakers) speculating that he could command more than $40 million a year.

He’ll enter unrestricted free agency next summer (provided that he declines the $14.8 million player option he owns) at a unique time for the league and its relationship for that particular mechanism for team building. Rule changes to the last two collective bargaining agreements have given teams greater control over their top homegrown players by giving them the ability to extend contracts sooner and at higher salary ranges. It’s kept young players as productive as Reaves from hitting the open market.


But because Reaves went undrafted in 2021, his earnings with the Lakers have been capped.

After two years, he entered restricted free agency. The Lakers signaled publicly and privately throughout the league that they’d match whatever offer sheet he signed, but instead of temporarily locking up cap space on an agreement unlikely to lead to a player signing, Reaves never got a formal offer from another team despite interest.

Instead, he re-signed with the Lakers for the max they could offer — a four-year, $53.8 million deal with an option for the last year. And because of that low number, the most the Lakers could offer in an extension this summer was a 40 percent raise.

Which is why he told Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss, “Thank you, but no.”

“I expressed that. Like, it was, ‘Y’all gave me an opportunity. Rob, you gave me an opportunity. Jeanie, you’ve treated my family amazing. Everything we’ve wanted, needed since we’ve been here, you’ve taken care of. And we appreciate y’all of that,’” Reaves said. “But we didn’t think that the number was the right number. And that’s not saying that we’re gonna go search for a number that’s out of the world.

“I want to be in L.A. I want to continue to play Virginia Country Club on off days. It’s not like we’re trying to just whack ’em over the head for more money than what I deserve. We just want to get what we feel like I’ve put the work in to get.”

Reaves is entering this season as one of just 13 players — along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, James Harden, LeBron James, Damian Lillard, Tyler Herro, Luka Dončić, Cade Cunningham, De’Aaron Fox and LaMelo Ball — to average at least 20 points, 5.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds last year.


Austin Reaves drives against Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs.Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Images
But a rough series against Minnesota, one where he played through a severe toe injury suffered in Game 3, left a vocal section of Lakers fans rooting for either a trade or a demotion. On the Lakers’ reddit page, r/Lakers, fans this summer pitched trades for Walker Kessler, Andrew Wiggins, Tari Eason, Aaron Nesmith and Herb Jones, among others.

Some have suggested that Reaves embrace a “T.J. McConnell role” and become a try-hard spark off the bench. Recently, former Lakers three-time champion Robert Horry on an episode of the “Big Shot Bob” podcast said that Reaves is too similar to Dončić, and the Lakers should look to sign-and-trade him if they were “smart.”

“I feel as if I’m in a position that I was never good enough to be in, but I still somehow don’t do enough, if that makes sense,” Reaves said. “When I first got in the league, it’s ‘OK, this is a good story. He can play. But how much better can he get?’ And then you can continue to have good years and you show people that you’re capable, but they’re always like, ‘Oh, he’s just a really good role player.’ But then you space me into this role-player category, and I exceed that to a standard. And then the people that put me in this category and say that I never will be more than that, they expect me to be like a star.

“If I really cared, it’s a lose-lose. I will never be able to do enough.”

Reaves, though, believes he’s in the right position now, playing with James and Dončić, playing for JJ Redick and playing in Los Angeles. After shifting roles for most of his young career, he enters this year with the confidence of his co-stars and coach — even if it requires sacrifice.

“I feel like I could be an All-Star. But all of that is, in my opinion, relative. Thank God I play with Luka and LeBron. And, I wanna win. So, it’s not like I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m just going out chucking, getting numbers,” Reaves said. “…If that’s the map for me to be an All-Star, I don’t care about that. I wanna win. If that means to be, ‘a third option’ to what I’m doing what I did last year, but we were having a chance to compete in the playoffs and compete for championships, then I would prefer that much more than even being an All-Star.”

And being able to continue to write his story as a Laker matters to Reaves, too. This season, he’ll be just the 61st player in team history to play parts of at least five seasons with the organization. He’s 44th all-time in minutes played for the Lakers, 39th in points, 29th in assists and ninth in 3-pointers made. The 20/4.5/5.5 season that made him one of 13 last year in the NBA? Only Jerry West, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson and James have done that in a full season for the Lakers.

“Being undrafted and this being my first home, there’s not many people in the league anymore that stay somewhere for their full career,” Reaves said. “I feel like that would be cool, and that would fit kind of the story of what my life’s been.”

Life now, mostly, is basketball and golf. Redick said Thursday that Reaves had another good summer, improving his strength and continuing to show that he’s always one of the best players in the gym — if not the singular best. Any nerves or concern about the pressures of playing for a nine-figure payday have given way to the joys of the present.

After Reaves survived the opening picks of the draft this past June, he settled in and played his second nine holes 1-under. Things, as they usually do for him, ended up working out.

“I really don’t think about it,” Reaves said. “I think that if I continue to do what I’ve been doing the last two or three years that it’ll be fine.”

And in a perfect world, “fine” would mean a big contract with the Lakers logo on it.

“You find windows and places where you feel comfortable and feel at home,” he said as the sun went down on another evening at the golf course.

And for Reaves, that’s here in Los Angeles.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6669125/2025/09/29/austin-reaves-lakers-contract-training-camp/

 

i'll be shocked if he's traded or if he signs elsewhere. we want him here; he wants to be here. i'd wager we sign him at something slightly below his market value, tbh. like under 35 per. this is all assuming health, etc.

 

He most probably signs a 4 years 160m contract starting at 35m per. I think that’s a fair place for him putting up 20/5/5. If he can’t be that second star once Lebron leaves, we use him as a big salary to go get one.

 

I'm not sure what he'll get but I'm happy for guys like Reaves who no one expected to be the type of player he is today and here we are talking about him possibly getting $35 million per year.

You root for players like him. Just nothing but hard work and getting better.

 

yeah, and his point about nobody ever being satisfied is right on.

it was interesting to hear his thought process on the extension. before the summer, i said i wouldn't be shocked if he took it, and it sounded like he actually considered it (or at least had some misgivings about just flatly refusing). this fits with my sense of what he's like. and i think he made the right choice, as he could probably suffer a pretty serious injury and still get 4/90 or close on the open market next summer. this isn't a schroder situation, where he literally spent the rest of his career trying to recoup the contract he turned down.

 

I think half of LG doesn’t like him to read the threads and reacted as such to those numbers today. Some great sensible posters but so many of the opposite ilk.

 

Well Austin kept up with Booker, the other Lakers not so much against the rest of the Suns. Sigh.

 

I read some where that Lebron has been working even more on his catch-and-shoot threes. This should benefit players like Luka and Austin. Reaves could kind of play more of his game this way, kicking it out to shooters.

 

Our defense will improve once Luka and Lebron return

 

If Smart is in and out all year, we will need to trade for someone before the e deadline who can fill that role.