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Lakers News: Only One Rival Team Can Now Offer Austin Reaves A Max Deal

Will they compete with the Lakers?

Noel Sanchez

In this story:

The Los Angeles Lakers made one of their biggest no-brainer moves on the first day of free agency as they re-signed breakout forward Rui Hachimura to a new deal worth three years, $51 million. Other than Hachimura, LA has prioritized filling out the rest of their roster with a mix of veterans and young pieces such as Taurean Prince, Gabe Vincent, Came Reddish and Jaxson Hayes.

And now their ground work has been laid out before them and only two real decisions must be made now... Will Austin Reaves be brought back and will D'Angelo Russell be brought. Luckily for Lakers fans, positive reports have been surfacing about both of them as LA seems determined to match any offer sheet for Reaves and D'lo's new contract could shape up to be $40 million over two years with a team option for the second year.

A number of teams were expected to be in the running to try and pry Reaves specifically from the purple and gold but after all the spending that went down in day one, there really only is one franchise that could still legitimately give the 25-year-old guard a hefty deal and that is the Western Conference rival San Antonio Spurs.

"Just ask Austin Reaves. The biggest piece of the Lakers’ remaining offseason puzzle remains unsigned. Los Angeles strongly signaled the Lakers will match any offer sheet for Reaves, which may limit the 25–year-old to the four-year, $50 million-plus maximum Los Angeles can offer him — still a massive win for the undrafted guard out of Arkansas. If Reaves were an unrestricted free agent, he likely could have drawn the attention of several suitors with cap space. Now, only the San Antonio Spurs stand as a team with the room to give the Lakers a true scare and lob Reaves the four-year, $100 million maximum offer sheet he can only garner from a rival team."

(Via Yahoo Sports)

I highly doubt the Lakers would allow the Spurs, a team they have a ton of competitive history with, steal one of their most prized possessions. Let's see how the headlines develop over these next few days.

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Noel Sanchez
NOEL SANCHEZ

Noel is currently in his third year at California Polytechnic University of Pomona and is pursuing a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Multi-Media Journalism. He has always had a deep passion for sports and writing.

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