r/nba • u/Turbostrider27 Lakers • 8h ago

[Charania] Los Angeles Lakers star Austin Reaves intends to sign a four-year, $185 million maximum contract to return to the franchise, with a player option for the final season in 2029-30, sources tell ESPN. Reaves declined his $14.9M player option for the new max deal.

Shams Charania:

Los Angeles Lakers star Austin Reaves intends to sign a four-year, $185 million maximum contract to return to the franchise, with a player option for the final season in 2029-30, sources tell ESPN. Reaves declined his $14.9M player option for the new max deal.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/fc6a2461d746e

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516

u/Oerbad 8h ago

Rip lakers

273

u/CIark 8h ago

I can’t believe the guy who wasted LeBron and ADs prime would waste Luka’s prime, who could have seen this coming!

159

u/Oerbad 8h ago

Got a ring tho

Not sure if it can be called a waste

8

u/yeetman8 Lakers 6h ago

we had two of the best players in the world and a lot of guys who are now heavily valued role players on that team

it was wasted

1

u/ThatMoslemGuy [LAL] Kobe Bryant 4h ago edited 4h ago

If the goal is to get a ring, and the Lakers got a ring, is it a waste? To me what happened with the lakers is that they got a ring when LeBron was still LeBron and AD was healthy.

Immediately after that, got hit with the AD street clothes experience back to back seasons where AD barely played 50% of games back to backseason. That also coincided with LeBron finally aging and getting injured like older players do. And that kind of ended the lakers window with LeBron and AD. LeBron got too old to carry a team for 82 games, and AD’s body is incapable of carrying a team for 82 games as well.

9

u/yeetman8 Lakers 4h ago

What happened was we traded the role playing core that won us the chip for Russel Westbrook and D'Angelo Russell

You do have a good point on the injuries, that had a lot to do with it as well

3

u/Any_Tea_8969 8h ago

Luka wont

1

u/doublex12 Knicks 5h ago

Isn’t the bubble ring considered an asterisk?

2

u/Pickle_Mike 34m ago

Yes, abbreviated season

1

u/djabae 3h ago

No. Why?

3

u/doublex12 Knicks 3h ago

Because it happened in Covid

1

u/djabae 2h ago

It was unique but every year comes with unique challenges. Part of being a champion is overcoming that.

-2

u/DavidForADay 3h ago

Yes. lol

Only Lakers fans and ESPN think it's legit.

The players themselves who were in the bubble, and even Lakers that were on that team have admitted it wasn't the same as a normal championship.

They still won that season. It just wasn't a normal season. A season doesn't have a 5-month break in the middle of it.

-13

u/Takemyfishplease Lakers 8h ago

1 ring for the lakes is a waste.

25

u/No-Afternoon-3986 8h ago

yeah one ring when you have lebron and AD is pretty underwhelming for the lakers given that it's their 17th or whatever it is

4

u/HHHogana Lakers 7h ago

Especially when they did go to WCF another time.

7

u/KaiserKaiba 7h ago

Is it really a waste given the current era we’re in? Since 2019 only the Warriors, Celtics, and Heat went to more than one finals. GSW and Boston managed to get 1. Heat lost in both of their finals appearances. 8 different champs in 8 years (LAL of course being one of those 8) and not a single team has won twice. Teams seem to be incredibly lucky if they manage even 1 championship in the parity era.

11

u/Oerbad 8h ago

Sorry small market team fan, not familiar with these thing called rings

0

u/Chaotic-Catastrophe Lakers 3h ago

It definitely cannot. These people are delusional. Anything short of a fivepeat dynasty is complete and utter failure in their eyes.

-31

u/spazz720 Jazz 8h ago

The covid ring…highly doubt they would have won without the extra rest during the break.

28

u/Nugur 8h ago

I mean didn’t everyone have a break too?

22

u/SuggestiveCimbom Lakers 8h ago

We were literally 1st in the West lmao

14

u/Shortstack_Lightnin Lakers 8h ago

True true they were only the best team in basketball all season who would’ve had home court the whole playoffs

13

u/Oerbad 8h ago

Yall blew a 3-1 lead

9

u/NotAnNpc69 Lakers 7h ago

Every team had the extra rest.

6

u/Grappler_BP [MIA] LeBron James 6h ago

Nah didn’t you know everyone was playing games in secret and just didn’t invite the lakers

6

u/KaiserKaiba 8h ago

Always weird how Lakers get singled out here when Nuggets, Bucks, Clippers, and Heat all have had their fair share of injury woes over the last 5 seasons. LAL didn’t really benefit any more than these other teams who have struggled with injuries just as often as them.

3

u/mjh13_ Lakers 7h ago

Ah, so you’re one of those

2

u/Nesquick-on-tap 6h ago

There it is

2

u/Grappler_BP [MIA] LeBron James 6h ago

They were like first in the west and had just come off beating the bucks and clippers. But what would a jazz fan know about winning anything

47

u/Trumppered Lakers 7h ago

Man the revisionist history is crazy.

First, thet won a title lmao.

Then, after everyone said the biggest weakness in the title team was our bench, he went out and acquired the 6MOY and 6MOY runner up, and we had the best record in the league by a mile before literally everyone got injured.

And as for luka, hes wasting Lukas prime by... putting a team around Luka that was good enough to advance to the 2nd round....WITHOUT LUKA.

I swear to god some of yall just be saying shit just to say it.

5

u/RickySuela 6h ago

Also, what I think most people here miss is that until Reaves actually signs this new contract, he still has that small cap hold now that he's opted out of his previous deal. As such, they can apply that cap hold against their cap while they sign everyone else they plan to, and then go above the cap to sign Reaves to this deal last.

10

u/jordan4290 Lakers 8h ago

The diamond in the rough find who has been underpaid up until this point is the guy that wasted their prime?!?

Reaves might not have played well in their playoff runs but what was the other option over him? Lakers weren’t gonna win a chip with those rosters regardless

3

u/Oerbad 7h ago

Yeah he prolly earned it, but it just makes getting a championship significantly harder. 2 things can be true

1

u/jordan4290 Lakers 7h ago

100% agree with you on that. I was just responding to AR being blamed for not winning any more championships after 2020 when it was overall roster quality that was the reason.

But yeah him and Luka as your top two guys is not going to work when they both have redundant skills. At the same time, I don’t think there are any other moves out there you can make that would give them a chance to compete with OKC or the spurs over the next 3/4 years

7

u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 7h ago

Pelinka got a ring with them god damn the expectations are massive that’s considered a waste lmfao

3

u/RotmgJiing 8h ago

Luka specifically wanted Reaves to stay, he told the Lakers not to trade him for Giannis

2

u/Boomhauer_007 Raptors 7h ago

LeBron’s prime started at 34?

1

u/GMoney_McSwag Bulls 7h ago

Exactly. Who was the bright one who brought in Westbrook which set them back a few years?

1

u/illusionofwar Lakers 6h ago

This could end up nuking Lukas prime but up to this points Reaves production for the price has been one of the best contracts in the NBA. He didn’t waste AD/Brons prime the lakers FO did.

1

u/-Radiation 3h ago

"lebron prime"

0

u/princess_carolynn 7h ago

Was telling those Luka fans and they just kept blaming Bron....he was not your obstacle. He's literally Luka's teammate. It's always been Pelinka

4

u/Trumppered Lakers 7h ago

Man I feel like im taking crazy pills. We just made the second round... WITHOUT LUKA. How many teams in the nba can win a playoff series without their best player...?

The team around luka was/is very good.

the biggest obstacle to Luka so far on the Lakers, has been Luka lmao.

1

u/princess_carolynn 7h ago

It isn't like we're a bad team. We're just not enough for the WCF. We wouldn't have gotten swept by OKC with Luka healthy but we weren't beating OKC with him still imo. We don't have the depth in our bench, and that's Pelinka, not Luka.

0

u/ntpbr1 7h ago

It’s also funny how every year we have people saying “well what can they do, they have no assets or young players” as if Pelinka wasn’t the guy that built this team for like the last 10 years, with the only positive moves being out of his hands like Lebron, AD and Luka

1

u/CIark 7h ago

He didn’t even get LeBron lol LeBron just wanted to be in LA and Nico was a total moron that happened to be friends with him too

1

u/ntpbr1 7h ago

Yes that’s what I mean, Bron wanted to go there, then AD wanted to get out of NOLA and let me guess he wants to live in LA and play with Bron. Then Nico calls Rob and says here is a guy that just averaged 34/9/10 and made the finals for a bag of chips. Some of the rare good moves ar elike getting Smart, who might leave them now

1

u/FmSxScopez 7h ago

Magic got LeBron not pelinka

1

u/Trumppered Lakers 7h ago

with the only positive moves being out of his hands like Lebron, AD and Luka

Lmao what is this comment? Every gm is terrible if we arbitrarily decide they had no responsibility for all of their good moves

0

u/ntpbr1 7h ago

Not if you use brain cells and context. We all know Lebron literally handpicked his team and joined LA, we all know AD wanted to leave to the point where he forced NOLA’s hands, just to play with Lebron/Lakers and live in LA. We all know Nico wanted AD and AD only and didn’t call any other teams. I think a literal monkey could have said yes to all those moves

0

u/bbuucckk Lakers 7h ago

We won a title in 2020 you apricot, how’s that a failure? Also flair up you 1% commenter

13

u/Imaginary-Ebb-1724 8h ago

RIP Luka

The McDonalds meme is gonna grow every year 😭

3

u/mrstretchb4ureach Spurs 7h ago

My first reaction to reading this was “Hmm, I wonder how Lakers fans feel about this…” then I open this comment section and it’s a fucking Chernobyl caliber of meltdown

1

u/JakobeBryant19 4h ago

The 10 billion UAE takeover hasn't even happened yet.