Lakers News: How Austin Reaves Feels About His Restricted Free Agency

Retaining LA's breakout shooting guard should be a top priority this summer.

Although your Los Angeles Lakers' 2022-23 season didn't end quite as the team hoped, with a Western Conference Finals exit instead of a record 18th NBA title, all things considered it was still a surprising pseudo-success story. 

After a 2-10 start to the season, LA's year looked dead in the water before it really began. Team vice president of basketball operations made a flurry of trades, and while it looks like the best player the club got back was power forward Rui Hachimura, the deal was more imperative as addition by subtraction, in that it equipped LA with more shooting help, allocated more minutes to starting shooting guard Austin Reaves, and took the ball out of the hands of Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley.

Now, Los Angeles needs to decides whether it wants to hold onto one or both of Reaves and Hachimura, if it's going to keep either of its two unrestricted free agent guards in D'Angelo Russell (this seems unlikely) or Dennis Schröder (more possible, depending on his market) or unrestricted free agent shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV, and if it's going to pick up team options on the pricey contracts of Malik Beasley or Mo Bamba (it's not).

Does Reaves even want to be back in LA?

Per Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet, it sure sounds like it.

“I want to be here. It feels like home to me, in a sense … the way the fans support me. Players, coaching staff, front office,” Reaves said. “This is definitely somewhere I want to be, but we’ll see what happens.”

According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, many clubs that project to have significant cap space this summer are interested in Reaves' services. His maximum deal from a competitor would be a four-year deal in the range of $100 million. Because Los Angeles just has his Early Bird Rights, the most the team can offer is a four-year, $52 million, but it could also match any offer from a rival team for more

There's a reason he'll fetch a pretty penny this summer: the 25-year-old had a terrific sophomore regular season and postseason. Across 36.2 minutes in 16 playoff games, Reaves averaged 16.9 points on .464/.443/.895 shooting splits, 4.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds, and thrived as the club's third-best two-way player behind you know who.

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