The biggest question of the Lakers’ offseason, at least from a pure monetary standpoint, is how much money are they willing to pay Austin Reaves?
Not how the rest of the team’s internal organizational restructuring will pan out.
Not even whether LeBron James will return for a 24th NBA season, and whether he’ll play for the Lakers for a ninth season — a decision that will have significant league-wide ramifications.
Reports have stated that Reaves — an expected unrestricted free agent once he declines his $14.9 million player option — wants a maximum contract worth $239 million across five seasons ($47.8 million average annual salary) and is not willing to take a hometown discount.
If the Lakers aren’t willing to go that high, they must explain to Reaves the reasoning if it means building a title-winning roster around him and Luka Doncic.
By comparison, the maximum contract another team could pay Reaves is $178 million over four seasons ($44.5 million average annual salary).
The Lakers want Reaves back. As they should after he’s proved to be an All-Star — and borderline All-NBA — caliber player.
And Reaves wants to return to the only NBA he’s known for the first five seasons of his NBA career.
In this sense, the sides are on the same page.
Where they may differ is the Lakers wanting to pay Reaves the least amount of money to bring him back to the franchise, looking to maximize their financial flexibility and optionality. And Reaves’ representatives, understandably, will negotiate for the most amount of money Reaves, 28, can make as he enters the prime of his career with his best chance of what will likely be the largest contract of his career.
If Reaves, or his representatives, not only want but demand the max deal they can get from the Lakers, the franchise without hesitation should pay it.
At face value, a $239 million contract for a player who hasn’t made an All-Star or All-NBA team may be difficult to fathom.
But in the modern NBA, it’s in line with what players of Reaves’ caliber command on the open market.
Reaves’ maximum salary for 2026-27 of approximately $41.2 million would make him somewhere around the 36th- to 40th-highest-paid player in the league for next season.
That salary would be in the same ballpark of Thunder wing Jalen Williams ($41.2 million), Thunder big man Chet Holmgren and Magic forward Paolo Banchero, a tad above Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. ($40.8 million) and a little below Clippers guard Darius Garland ($42.2 million), Grizzlies guard Ja Morant and Pelicans forward Zion Williamson.
Reaves isn’t better than all of these players. But he’s better than a fair amount of them.
He ranked 30th in actual estimated plus-minus (EPM) for 2025-26 according to Dunks & Threes. And he was one of 20 players to average at least 23 points, five assists and four rebounds in 2025-26.
And before the multiple calf injuries that slowed down his season, Reaves was averaging 27.8 points, 6.7 assists and 5.6 rebounds.
There’s also the Doncic factor, and the reality that Reaves has proved to be a good fit alongside the Lakers superstar.
The Lakers outscored opponents by an elite margin of nine points per 100 possessions in 2025-26 when Doncic and Reaves shared the floor, up from 7.7 points per 100 possessions in 2024-25. Doncic’s history with Jalen Brunson and Kyrie Irving when with the Mavericks showed that putting him alongside another talented perimeter creator is a formula proven to work.
And Reaves has shown he’s that caliber of player.
He isn’t a perfect player. He has to be more durable after playing a career-low 51 games in 2025-26, and having back-to-back playoff runs impacted by injuries. Max players aren’t judged by what they do during the regular season, but more so in the playoffs, where Reaves’ catch-and-shoot 3-point shooting has dipped three consecutive years.
But the Lakers can’t risk losing a player the caliber of Reaves for nothing. Especially not while they have Doncic, who’s in the prime of his career and ready to contend for championship now. Losing his co-star would be a backward step during a period the Lakers can’t afford to do so.
If Reaves and his representatives are willing to sign a contract with the Lakers for an annual salary that’s less than the maximum Reaves can receive, the franchise should consider that a gift. Especially after Reaves has been significantly underpaid for the last four seasons.
Yes, the significant pay raise for Reaves will make building a championship caliber roster around him and Doncic more challenging. But that’s the reality and challenge franchises sign up for when they have high-caliber players on their roster.
“(Reaves) started his journey here as a Laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker,” Lakers president of basketball operations/general manager Rob Pelinka said after the season. “And we feel the same way. We want his odyssey to continue to unfold in the Purple and Gold. There’s rules and timing to all of that but I think both sides have made it abundantly clear that we want to work something out where he continues his prolific career here.”
And if the Lakers truly feel the way Pelinka says they do, they’ll pay Reaves — what he wants and what he’s worth.
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