Austin Reaves has made a name for himself in the basketball world over the last year, and he has likely carved out a nice future for himself in the NBA as well. He is a restricted free agent for this coming off-season, and could demand some big money on the market.
Lakers Could Match $100 Million For Austin Reaves
Report: Lakers plan to match $100M offer sheets on Austin Reaves https://t.co/pHN43ZSl8H
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) June 1, 2023
Given his run during the regular season and especially in the playoffs, the Lakers view Reaves as one of their top players. He was their third-leading scorer during the 2023 Playoffs, and was a big part of any success that the team enjoyed over the last month. Los Angeles can use his Bird Rights in order to keep him for a price of $50.8 million for four years, but they’ll be willing to match nine-figure offer sheets should it come to that.
According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Lakers are high on Reaves entering the off-season:
“The Lakers are going to match any contract offer sheet that he signs up to that $100 million. (They) view him as the third-best player on this team if you look at the regular season and postseason he had…There were several factors as to why the Lakers made that second half run, but chief among them — and maybe the biggest factor overall — was Reaves’ ascension.”
His ascension is certainly impressive. Austin Reaves went undrafted out of Oklahoma in 2021, eventually signing a two-way contrat with the Lakers. He impressed immediately, and has been seeing a steady increase in both minutes and production ever since.
Playing in just five more minutes per game than the previous season, Reaves nearly doubled his scoring output. He averaged 13 points in 28 minutes per game during the regular season, but upped that number to nearly 17 points per in the playoffs while shooting 44% from deep.
Reaves performed at his best during the Lakers unfortunate sweep in the Western Conference Finals. He shot a blistering 56% from 3-point range over the four games, averaging over 21 points and 5 assists in the sweep. And while he wasn’t able to lead his team to victory, he did enough to secure himself a solid payday this off-season.
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