Austin Reaves Discussion: How Much Is He Worth?

i still don't think there's a line. if he were supermax eligible, ok. but 41 million isn't outrageous. the FA market sucks, and nobody is dumping players of his caliber into space, so the gained space will do little.

you're more likely to get that player in trade for reaves than you are with space.

i'm also not as convinced as everyone that it's not a workable pairing. we're watching towns and brunson on the cusp of a title. it's about who's playing around them.

or forwards who can defend guards.

you're assuming people won't match RFA offers. great way to get burned. i don't know if 80 million is enough to get two of those via RFA, lol, as i'm sure their agents are seeking max, too (won't get it, but...). maybe that's overstating it...

most optimistic case is that you could get watson for 32 (again, pretty sure denver will move to match, but for the sake of argument...) and kessler or duren for about the same. that's going to eat almost all the space. and again, pretty sure all three of those teams have zero interest in losing their homegrown player for nothing (for the same reason we should have no interest in losing ours).

do we have the salaries to move for herb and portis? would we have the room to re-up hayes? did we assume smart opted in? can we count on smart being a 30mpg player (he'd need to be) for 82 games and the playoffs?

it's an interesting thought, but i don't trust RFA as much as you do. teams generally match, and then you're REALLY screwed, as the rest of FA has already played out without you. you end up wasting a year of luka's prime with stopgap signings made to be traded when everyone knows you're doing that.

edit: two closing thoughts on this. the fear that reaves is an overpay at 41 (or 35?) is driving this. but...are we sure that kessler/watson/duren won't be overpays at 35ish themselves? you're talking about one guy who's been hurt a lot, one guy who's still largely theoretical, and another guy who just got benched in some crucial playoff games. if their team is willing to let them walk for that money, do you want them?

second--all of these also involve losing lebron next year, and i agree with his supporters that he's probably more valuable than any of those guys next year.

i still like the idea of trying to get one of these RFAs, though, and i'm willing to let rui/kennard types walk to try it.