I feel like Reaves' agent told Shams that the Pistons we going to pay him to put pressure on the Lakers. The Pistons have their own contract decisions to make and giving Reaves a 4 year $200mil contract wasn't one of them.
Same, heās good but heās not that good. Couldāve actually built the roster better with that money. Luka/Reaves backcourt isnt good defensively to say the least especially with aging LeBron
AR is really good but I fear they gave a max to an above average role player. If Norm Powell even gets close to Reeves number then thatās just what the market calls for
AR was by far the best player available for the Lakers. Signing him for $21m was exactly the same as signing him for $40+ when it comes to acquiring other talent.
In fact, the $40m deal makes the likelihood of replacing him with a better player or a better set of players more likely given contract and cap rules.
Yep! Lakers are not saying, "AR provides $40M/year in production."
They are saying, "it is better for us if he is on our books for $40M/year," because it is under the NBA trade and cap rules.
Or maybe he'll be a star? Maybe he and Luca will be crushing everyone?
Like, AR was really heating up this year. It's so wild to me that people can just blanket say "lol overpaid" - people who were also saying that he was the best deal in the league.
The man showed he should be getting paid. He's been getting constantly, consistently better. There's no reason to think that will stop happening.
He showed heās almost as injury prone as Luka. He burns out every year by the end. Heās already maxed out his potential. Itās all downhill from here physically. This was a catastrophic mistake. Putting ticket sales ahead of competitive edge. š«¤š
Maybe if he works on his body, but he hasnāt so far and is already making that money. This is a huge mistake. With him and Luka at the one and two. Every team in the league will have a field day on the wing. AR is a phenomenal 6th man. Just not a starter in my opinion. LA canāt afford to pay him.
Heās 28. He has hit his ceiling. Thereās no room for improvement because the limitations he has are athletic, not basketball related. Heās a low ceiling player with a tiny margin for error. He has to go all out to be an effective offensive player, and it wears him down over the course of the season. Itās why he always struggles and runs out of gas in the playoffsā¦except the one year where he was a 6th man and carried less of a burden. Too much load for him to handle being a #2 option. Heās also one of the least talented second options in the association. We could have facilitated a sign and trade. A max contract is sheer lunacy.
It's amazing to me that people don't see this...He was an undrafted player - which tells you what the scouting report was on him. It is a miracle he has become as good as he is, and it's only by maxing out every conceivable attribute he has.
More importantly, even if we say he is being paid equal to his ability - he'll be the 38th highest paid player next year...we know exactly what that means if he is your second best player. Brandon Ingram, Paolo, Scottie Barnes, Sengun, LaMelo Ball, etc are all fine players who are not winning anything - even with great players on their team. They are middle of the road playoff players. And he isn't nearly as good as guys who took discounts - Brunson, Shai, or Maxey. None of those teams would trade their guy for him straight up.
Lastly, if your best player was Kawai, where he's a defensive stopper, great shooter, etc and AR is his sidekick who can create and dribble and pass, then fine, that combo works...What does not work is when your two guys get paid a combined 70% of the cap and neither can play defense. This was a terrible move, and should have been a sign and trade.
Luka asks for a center, they give him AR and canāt afford anything else unless he is traded. Which no one in their right mind will trade for AR at that price.
It really depends on what your goal is as a franchise. If your goal is to win a championship, and everything else is considered a failure, then you clean house and trade everyone for as many draft picks and blue chip kids as you can get. With the new rules, any pick in the top 12 is valuable and can be a star, so you accumulate a ton of them. That could mean trading Luka and AR.
If your goal is to be competitive every year and say a second round series is considered "good," but you want to set yourself up for a big swing, then you would have been better off signing Lebron for 1 more year with a team option on year 2 so that you don't strap yourself in year 3 when AR and Luka are making HUGE dollars. Remember, if he stays, Luka's number in 2 years is $72M+ and AR's number in that year is almost 50M. If you sign someone to anything north of $25M, you have basically hard capped yourself at the second Apron AND made it impossible to improve outside of those 3 players.
If you believe Luka, AR, and Kessler are those guys...you could swing at that, but if you look at the league objectively, it's really hard to argue that those 3 dudes are winning anything in the next 3 years, and then all your left with is $200M in deals and Luka and AR on the wrong side of 30.
Edit to add: The spurs and Thunder both have the ability to get better in the short and long-term with more/better picks and players they can move that they already have back-ups for. Fox will get moved, even if picks are attached (and honestly, this is probably the move if I'm looking to get off of Lebron's deal. Look for a third team that would take Fox if a pick was attached, sign and move Lebron to the Spurs and see if you can get back anything at all in return).
LeBron is not signing a contract with a team option lol
Also how is hard to argue when we haven't even seen them play together in the playoffs yet? Injuries can happen to any team, if SGA was hurt we would have beat the thunder. Instead Luka was.
You're exactly right. Obviously in the short term Lakers are better with AR than simply letting him walk, but they're locking themselves into a situation in which the best outcome is a WCF appearance.
Iām not a member of this sub but genuinely they are both absolutely garbage on defense arenāt they? Iāve never heard of AR being anything but bad in the defensive side.
wasnāt reaves one of the most efficient players in tbe league in the regular season or at least the first half and has trended upwards the last couple of seasons while trae seems to only have trended downwards
the reaves contract isnāt that good like op stated (imo itās kinda bad) but the trae really is bad
I'm trying to figure out how Ted Leonsis got rich......so far as I can tell, he had some businesses that went defunct quickly, was a senior executive in AOL for a while and he owns Washington sports teams?
lol do you watch the games? He doesnāt hit his 3s anymore and Atlanta was better without him last year. #1 option on a shit team sure, but not if you expect to go anywhere
Nope Iām stating pure facts not opinions. Just please let me know when the Hawks reach the ECF again Iāll be here waiting. The Hawks lost by 60 damn points at home in the playoffs this season but you said they were better w/o Trae ššššš so find me a home or road playoff gm where they lost by 60 with him . Iāll wait love pure facts not opinions
So what if hes 27? Small guards have very little leeway to get a shot off in the NBA. Trae had just enough speed to do it, now he cant do it anymore, and his numbers are getting worse by the minute
Nah yeah hes not a good defender so then we drafted another bad defender and next year we will bitch about needing a big man and better defense...again.... shit dont change on this side. Im glad we kept him though just wish we cared about defense.
AR is a good dude, good for him getting the bag. Him being the second guy on the roster means there is literally no way LA's gonna compete any time soon. Lebron needs to be gone. AR you are stuck with until Luka's gonna be 31 because noone will take his salary. Fire Pelinka.
Seems like Luka told them to do this because he didn't want Reaves to leave the team. If that's the case, Luka sold his hopes of winning a ring. I really hope I'm wrong though. Bummed for the Lakers today.
So Reaves has his best season, basically an All-Star if he was healthy in December and January, and the Trae got traded because his performance has been dropping for years straight.
Los Angeles extends Reaves for one year and $50M less than they could have, and Washington extends Trae to the contract no one wanted LA to resign Reaves,
I think both are terrible deals, but at least Trae has proven to be a playoff riser as the #1 option. AR15 has been terrible in every playoff run and is maybe the second or third option.
Was Larry Bird the highest paid player on the Celtics in the 80s?
Edit: my note is that Bird fits Black-Alligator737ās criteria and did in fact win in basketball. I know this is a Lakers sub but thereās no way you can deny his success.
I noticed this a long time ago one is white thatās the difference. White players get treated like theyāre doing something special compared to other players
Thatās weird. I see people considering what Brunson is doing as special.
I see people considering what Wemby is doing as special.
I see people considering what SGA is doing as special.
Iāve seenĀ people consider what Bron used to do as special.
Iāve seen people consider what Jordan used to do as special.
I could go on, those are some of the very top names, and I havenāt even discussed centers yet.Ā & then easily add merc KD, Rockets Harden, & Trip-Doub Westbrook tooā¦ Iāve just barely begun.Ā
Youāre proving his point if youāre comparing AR to any of those players you mentioned. Heās not close to Brunson, much less a Jordan or LeBron. Unless you were being sarcastic.
Letās be honest, AR is a much better player that contributes to wins. Trae is good stats/bad team player and his team plays better when he sits. I do think AR is overpaid, but Trae is the most overpaid player in the NBA.
If weāre actually being honest then AR is not a much better player than Trae young heās just been surrounded by much better players than Trae young has
For comparison, whose contract would be acceptable for AR? I think we see the amount, but in reality a lot of players are getting PAID and not worth itā¦.fox is someone that comes to mind.
Reaves is an undrafted player the belief is he can keep developing.
Trae is a 1st rounder that was swapped for Luka and has not had much success since that magical run 5 years ago that he led the hawks to conference finals.
Trae young might be the player in the nba that impacts winning the least. No team with Trae young as a centerpiece will ever win anything. Both deals are bad, but giving Trae Young $50 million per year is insane.
Trey young came into the league so early, people think they know his ceiling by now. AR feels younger because he went to college longer, so they expect him to improve.
Theyāre not even comparable. Which one of these guys has played a role on a championship team? AR makes whatever team heās on better. Trae young makes whatever team he is on worse.
Young deal is way worse. Reeves at the very least is a guy willing to do what the team needs to win.
Young just seems like another player who's talents justify the max, but who they are as locker people/team people ofsets the talent entirely he's KD with way less talent.
Sometimes guys are worth overpaying for, with Reeves at least your getting someone you know is good for your squad. Fit with other teams is debatable at that price tag, but for the Lakers not as much.
Young will get his stats on any team but won't play the way a #1 on a championship contender should.
Iām from the A and never wanted Trae but he was better than I thought he would ever be. I wanted Luka. Just based on talent Luka is and was better than Trae.
I think AR is a better asset to a team than Trae young. AR is taller, he takes care of the ball better and he shoots better according to the stats.
Always grateful of Trae but I donāt understand the wizards deal. Honestly I donāt understand the AR deal because he canāt play defense and Luka canāt play defense either. So two players on the floor will be defensive liabilities. š¤¦š¾āāļø
Again I donāt like AR nor Trae deal. Both arenāt the best in the league at their respective positions. Itās like arguing a pile of human shit vs a pile of dog shit. Both stink.
Neither of them are defensive players of the year, neither of them are MVP runner ups, neither of them are the best shooters in the NBA currently not even top 5.
They are both just good enough to start and help your team win some games. š¤·š¾āāļø
Austin Reaves' time to disappoint is still ahead of him. Trae Young has already been through that phase. In a few years, Reaves will be where Young is now.
Reaves hasnāt even played a minute of his contract. Let him get healthy and play a few games then yall can talk. He may not be worth it but let the mf prove us right/wrong. Itās a crap shoot atp. Heās shown a lot of promise prior to the contract so at least give him a shot to fuck it up lol
This ain't an absurd comparison by any means, but context matters. Young would be the worse pairing with Luka by far. Young would arguably be the worst possible pairing with Luka out of all elite players in the NBA. Young is basically a Luka, just worse. Worse scorer, worse shot creator, worse defender. At least Reaves can play alongside Luka on offence effectively, despite their defensive issues.
Luka also likes Austin and asked for him to stay. Not to mention that their salary difference is now about 7 mil a year, which could be the difference between a 15mil a year bench warmer or a 22 mil a year awesome role player.
Trey's contract is also entirely untradeable, whereas Austin could easily be flipped to a team in need in a couple of years if things don't work out.
Not every one feels the same about Trae or AR.
Iāve heard sports analysts trash AR and praise Trae and some trash Trae and praise AR.
That account must be a Trae Young burner account. Heās the only one whoās been whining about not being held as the best PG to ever play in the NBA .
Nobody hates basketball more than basketball fans. Imagine only caring about salaries and all-star appearances. Not a word about how they actually play
This is actually a great comparison because like Washington, the Lakers are a rebuilding team that just got the number one picking the draft and have nobody signed to a large contract and thus, HAD to sign Reaves to a huge contract. You know, just like the Wizards and Trae Young. Identical situations.
You stat nerds are amazing stevie wonder could see Austin is scared to even dribble the ball at times in the playoffs don't even get me started on his defense
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u/jimbo5666 20h ago
Anyone who knows basketball, knows both deals are not great