2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Can't justify it. his play moving forward will dictate if this was a massive mistake on Lakers part. Leading up to today not a max player. I would have rather they traded him a year ago and avoid the massive contract. I would take Trey Murphy over Ausin and sign a pg like say Colby white. And have a deeper team over keep dangling in the g league to fill out the roster.

 

Austin was obviously in our plans so why take the risk?
It would have been a catastrophic summer if our FO low balled him and he walked out the door.

 

I am not saying low ball him. I just think they jumped the gun and I believe you could get it done for 180. 185 just seems a little excessive to me.

 

Fact is Reaves went from one of the best value contracts in the league to one of the worst overpays.

Which usually is okay if you're a bad team but if you're trying to be a contender this type of contract is usually the kiss of death.

I find it especially ludicrous to offer him the max as no other team with cap space could have paid him more than 40 per season.

I'm not worried about this season due to cap hold but if his numbers don't hold up this year or he keeps struggling in the playoffs we're 100% going to have to be attaching FRPs to get rid of this contract at the end of next season.

All the Reaves superfans that are more worried about him than us winning I'm sure are happy he makes a few million more I guess so let's roll with it.

 

He was 28/5/8 on 49/36/88 without Bron (ergo future). He was 23/5/6 for the year.

I think he will meet your standard.

 

He wanted to be a Laker and no one else could have out bid them. He now makes more than Brunson who plays for the richest franchise. Lead team to a championship, have a winning post season record and more accomplished.

 

I am not trying to make this sound like babbling my Dude. I am trying to have optimism that something else will work out and we will forget all about this later. I am also trying to just present a different perspective while respecting your POV. I never have gone after your opinion as wrong or bad...and I am not going to change that now.

Yeah, MLB doesn't have a cap, but if you have an owner that has money....even if there is a tax penalty and what not because of having a high cap...you just sign the check and not worry about it. Look at Balmer, and before you say "But the Clippers haven't had success", I know that might not be 1 for 1, but the fact is that some owners don't care and make it work.

The success isn't always tied to the fact that you are paying for taxes out the back, but when you aren't worried about it....

 

The Los Angeles Lakers hold an 11-21 overall postseason record with Austin Reaves in the lineup, spanning 32 playoff games.

 

It's not a max. It's the max he CAN GET.
This only gets him the 16th guard per salary, around Ja Morant and Lamelo.

I feel most criticism is due to ignorance of people. One here was complaining this impacts which FAs we can get this offseason, which it doesn't.

Inform yourselves before posting an opinion would be my suggestion

 

Ahh, the 11 game sample size where you have to add in the 51/41 point games?

My comment was more-so involving the playoffs where Reaves has underperformed relative to the regular season outside of his first playoffs appearance. I'm not going to put too much emphasis on an 11 game sample size.

 

I thought we had came to the conclusion the postseason record is meaningless

 

No s***?

We're saying he isn't worth the max HE could get. You're arguing semantics. Obviously the max a player can get varies based on whether they have a supermax, etc.,

 

Would have also rather traded him a year ago now knowing the $ amount

 

I don't know that people here are Reaves superfans, but I think we just see the potential.

With that, I know people want to win, but you have to start somewhere and hope for the best. You also have to keep your Lukas and your LeBrons happy. What if one of both of them were saying "We don't care what it takes, get Reaves or we walk?" You can't do much after that point.

There's a chance we would have been bottom of the barrel this year by chancing that he signed the same-ish deal with someone else.

 

It's 16. And 1/3 of his season.
So the good games shouldn't count is that your argument?

 

Did we forget about Westbrook? Unless they win it will always come up. The Lakers back court defense and $$ ability to round out the team. These topics will not go away unless they win.

 

I really don't know what you're arguing. You just tried to compare the MLB to the NBA without acknowledging that the MLB operates without a salary cap so overpaying for someone isn't as big of an issue as it is in the NBA where the margin-of-error is significantly higher.

You can't just 'make it work' by paying more money. At some point, money isn't the issue and the moves you made that handicapped your roster is.

It's babbling because unless you're comparing these two leagues with the same faith, it's pointless discussion. If they don't operate under the same rules, you can't assume that money will fix the Lakers problems. It helps, but it can't save them from bad contracts.

 

You seriously think he'd threaten to leave and take like 10 mill less per year just because we didnt offer him the max?

Lol

 

Does the compilation count? Playing Spurs and playing Wizards not same either.

 

Does the compilation count? Playing Spurs and playing Wizards not same either.

 

Wait, what of Westbrook? We all agree that was a bad situation, but it had some flare and fun.

But I associate that to LeBron and Davis thinking they knew better than just the Front Office screwing things up. But that's just me.