2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

I think Reaves is an asset they want back, but if their approach is as you say, it doesn’t guarantee he’s in the long term plans.

Business is business.

 

All I’m saying this is L.A. I just saw the Rams trade for Myles Garrett. You never know.

 

Jerrod Verse won NFL defensive player of the year Rookie. But it’s Garrett so you get better you’re elevated to Super Bowl status.

as good as Verse is Garrett is better.

so as good as Reaves is if you get better or are offered better you gotta get better.

 

Yeah we differ on some things opinion wise and agree on others, but you are out here with a thousand different ideas constantly, no point me honing in on any of them. Am just saying Walter and the FO undoubtedly have plans and right now from all appearances, until further notice AR is in them. Yet you have AR going hypothetically here and there. What's the point, since you and all of us expect he (Mark) and they(FO under Mark) are going to be on their game with ALL of the moves.

 

trey murphy?



williams and davis (assuming AD, if he's still alive?) are also fairly debatable.

but it doesn't matter if they're not, because i don't think anyone is taking reaves for them anyway (actually, pretty sure NO takes reaves for murphy and i'm 1000% sure the wiz take reaves for davis).

so we're back to the same stupid argument--is your contention that reaves shouldn't be re-signed? or shouldn't be re-signed at a number over XXm (which is basically the same thing, imo)? if so, come out and say it. but these hypotheticals involving comparing him to franchise players and supermax players and such is not worth discussing. he's an unrestricted free agent, and most of the players listed either aren't on the block at all or are on the block seeking a totally different kind of return.

not a single reaves fan on the forum has said that reaves could never be traded in the future should a better player become available. that's a strawman.

you re-sign your homegrown all-star level talent at the lowest max possible (if need be), and you move forward. it's not like reaves will have a no-trade clause, and if he's as s***ty as some suggest, then paying him 40 instead of 35 shouldn't matter, as no one would touch him in trade at either price, right?

 

Sure, I would trade Austin for Brown but not Kyrie who is at the very end of his career.
I’d can’t wait for this off season to be over so I don’t come here every day and have to read that Austin is the problem, when in fact, he’s not.
Luka has a strong friendship with him off the court and loves playing with him on it.

 

Yoooooooo


I love Austin Reaves. I definitely think Kyrie Irving is better than him. Yes I do. He’s a better ball handler he’s a better shooter. He’s a better scorer. He’s a better distributor.

and he’s got a ring. When he goes off no one can stop him. And a clutch playoff performer so yes. I would trade him for him. Hes not at the end of his career.

I just think Trey Murphy is an untapped superstar and a superstar on the right team. I’ve watched him go off and he would be great with Luka.

I’ve Caped for Austin since the season started. But if you can get better you get better.

Austin Reaves for Lauri Markanen give me Lauri.

and if Jerry West was here he would trade Austin because he could get better.

I was an 11 year old kid whose favorite player was Eddie Jones but I knew we had to get better.

I didn’t want Nick Van Excel traded for Tyron Lue and Tony Battie but we had to get better.

looking at Wemby. If I can get Gianiss I want to get better.

 

I’m just throwing out ideas. It’s the off season. Different scenarios. Yes it’s likely he would be resigned.

but you never know. And if the team really wants to win a championship you have to look at all avenues.

the Dodgers have traded players to get more depth and get better that I didn’t understand.

If a Reaves can net you a Murphy and Jones in a sign and trade with Vando going out I think that’s something they would look at.

 

I think it's insane to trade AR for Kyrie. yes Kyrie was a better player but we're not talking about Lebron james here.
He's 34 yo, a PG, is coming off now mulitple major injuries.

Weirdest thing is I think there are lot of people just blowing off AR's defense as if it's not a real legit concern but then you have this other side who seems to not value him at all appropriately. irving is going to be worse defender then AR almost guaranteed going forward.

 

I've made peace with the fact he's getting 40mill per year, and staying next season because of cap hold and because Luka wants him around

I think he'll be the first on the chopping block at the end of next year, though, if he underperforms in the playoffs again and we don't make the conference finals at least.

it's fine if you don't agree with that, but people need to chill with the drama. Every time someone touches the AR topic, it's like we're talking about a family member of yours or something.

 

So you dont think Lakers will have a hard time with two unathletic one way players in the back court?

 

Kyrie won with Luka. In Dallas. We gotta do what can make Luka win.

as good as Austin is his handle isn’t as good as Kyrie.

 

It’s a fkn religion with these guys repeating this ridiculous mantra as if incontrovertible fact (one MVP level superstar and one all star level player reduced to “2 one way players” because they can’t guard point of attack) and bit***** and badgering about something they and everyone else here has zero control over …. now, all summer, next season, the summer after and on and on …. irregardless of the new owner everyone wanted who’s doing everything hoped for upgrading the organization every way possible that’s needed including the focus and plan for winning THEY have in place.

 

I'm trying to stay out of the on going Reaves debate, but it seems to me that his 40m per is being discussed as equivalent to a "typical" max contract received by some of the truly top players. It isn't that, and the Lakers should still be able to sign another No. 2 player if they wish to go that route after signing Reaves (probably next summer but still). No matter what you think anout Reaves as the No. 2, he would be a fantastic No. 3, especially assuming No. 2 is a defensive minded guy.

 

F it. Looks like Nuggets are trying to trade Cam Johnson and Baun to free up money for Watson. So yall were right let’s stop talking about him.

1. so we’ll resign Reaves at his number.

2. Ayton will opt in we’ll have him back.

3. we’ll resign Hachimura.

4. we’ll resign Lebron

5. we’ll bring back smart at a good raise.

6. we’ll sign Keon Ellis

7. we’ll sign Matthias Thybulle

8. we’ll sign Jaxson Hayes

9. we’ll sign Robert Williams

10. we’ll resign Luke Kennard.

that will be the off season. Surprise me let me know if anything else crazy happens but that will be it. Nothing to see here. And hopefully we’ll stay healthy.

and I’ll guess we’ll try to attach a 2nd rounder and try to trade Vando dump his salary and add Dalton Knect as a sweetener.

 

There is a solution, you are just a wuss.

 

Yeah this is the main thing. Unfortunately a lot of people are impatient and want everything immediately.

The best business decision right now is re-sign AR for whatever value.
If it works, great, everyone's happy.
If it doesn't work he will certainly be one of the main trade assets to continue to upgrade the team in the next couple years.
The world doesn't end (hopefully) this summer, this will be just another window (a very critical one) to upgrade the team, but we will continue to make moves in the following years to improve the team as much as possible, and at some point AR may be in the trading block as a good asset

By August we don't want (because we can't) to have a championship level team that is on par with OKC/SAS. That's unreasonable. We want to be better at least in 2 to 3 of the top 8 rotation and reduce the gap to them. And continue to build on that in the years to come.

 

reaves's defense isn't as bad as his detractors (and this post) suggest. you'd think he consistently ranked among the league's worst defenders instead of slightly above the median (where he was this year), lol.

the guys he's supposed to be traded for (e.g., kyrie, markkanen?!) are worse. the battle is being (relentlessly, despite everyone knowing the immediate outcome) waged on several contradictory fronts.

you can't win without a second all-nba player. you can't win unless your top two players are two-way stalwarts.

people point out denver (wanna talk about a guy who consistently ranks among the worst guard defenders? jamal freaking murray) and dallas.

but that was a million years ago in a league far, far away.

then people suggest trading for kyrie irving (ironically bc dallas worked), who's 34, coming off a torn acl, AND during his last season was in the 16th percentile on the best defensive metric i know of.

anyway, the most maddening part is, as LT said, nothing can or will be done about this in the short-term, so it's weird to perseverate on one of the bigger non-issues facing the team right now. whether or not to re-sign your 27 year old all star caliber player who's a UFA is a no-brainer.

whether to re-sign rui and kennard is not a no-brainer, for example. whether to allow lebron to hold up your FA plans is not a no-brainer.

in this scenario, you have the MLE to pay smart, ellis, thybulle, AND robert williams. at very best you get two of them. more likely, you get smart, and maybe one of them.

again, the over-the-cap route basically means we're in a very similar spot to the one that's bitten us for a while now--we'd like to trade our junk and some future 1sts for your starting caliber player.

we'll see if that market finally exists or not. it hasn't for like, 3 years running, though.

 

My concern is not that Austin is not good. My concern is Lakers about to cash out on a player they have very little playoff success with. Look at it like this If you had Pau/Kobe who won a championship but struggled to get out the 1st round and lets say Bynum was your 3rd option/2nd option as Pau was getting old. Would you trade or pay Bynum in hopes him and Kobe would win titles? I think the part that gets over looked is for the past 3-4 years Lakers have had 2 top 10 super stars along with Austin. At that point he was on a cheaper contract. Now your going to fork out $$ which will limit the kind of help you can afford. I do think Austin is really really good. But i am not sure he is the right player to lead a team to a championship. So to me now the $$ dictates as 40 mil is too much for a one way player.

 

While Austin proved to be a really good player there is still an argument that can be had he is a 6th man on a championship team. you dont pay 6th man 40mil.