Austin Reaves is off to a hot start this season. Even while the Los Angeles Lakers have been down LeBron James, and at times, Luka Dončić, Reaves has been dominant, which has played a hand in the Lakers starting the season at 5-2.
Reaves playing as well as he has is good news for the Lakers this season, but it could be bad news for them long term. Because the blossoming star has a team option for next season
How Strong is the Market for Austin Reaves Already?
During his appearance on the “All NBA Podcast,” Marc Stein revealed that there are plenty of teams keeping their eyes on Reaves when Adam Mares asked if there would be “sharks in the water.”
“Definitely monitoring… that’s a word that makes some people laugh,” Stein said. “But yeah, a lot of people are monitoring. Again, the question will be, right now, there are teams projected to have cap space. But as we know, this is an era of everyone doing extensions, teams making trades, trading for guys before the February deadline to use their cap space before they even wait to free agency.”
Stein added that the league will gain a better understanding of Reaves’ prospects this coming offseason.
“So, we’re gonna have to see when we get to July 30th how much cap space is actually out there. At this point, there does project to be a handful of teams with space whereas last summer we had none. Last summer, we had Brooklyn with space, and the Nets made it very clear that they weren’t gonna use it.”
Seven games into the season, Reaves is averaging 31.1 points, 9.3 assists, and 5.1 rebounds while shooting nearly 49% from the field and 34.4% from three. Those numbers are sure to dwindle once the Lakers are fully healthy, but any potential suitor is definitely paying attention to that kind of production when he’s at the top of the pecking order.
Reaves’ first priority may be to stay with the Lakers, but there’s no reason for him to settle for less than what he’s worth. He’s already on one of the league’s most team-friendly contracts, being in the third year of a four-year, $53.8 million contract. If the Lakers want to keep him, a raise is definitely in order.
They can’t afford to screw up the window they have miraculously opened with Dončić. Because Reaves keeps exceeding expectations, and it’s getting the Lakers good results while heavily undermanned, the last thing they should do is play games.