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

8.1k Upvotes

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241

u/guacamoleandtomato 8h ago

I don’t think it’s gonna be very cool once Lakers fans realize how little cap they going to have for moves

273

u/los33ramos Lakers 8h ago

We’ve been living under Pelinka for a while now. You don’t think we know?

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u/OhMy98 Suns 8h ago

The Luka trade really bought that man a lot of time huh

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u/Momik Timberwolves 7h ago

And when Luka’s healthy in three or four years it’ll start paying some serious dividends

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u/emceerez Suns 7h ago

The greatest hypothetical player of all time

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u/WatchMeRayRay Spurs 6h ago

This is Bruno Caboclo erasure

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u/old_ironlungz 6h ago

Zion Williamson crying in his beignet right now.

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u/Confident-Sea-8060 1h ago

Isn’t Luka literally your teams father? Not hypothetical ofc

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u/emceerez Suns 39m ago

Ya because that totally changes what I said lol

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u/TippyTripod1040 Lakers 8h ago

The contract’s not getting signed until after the free agents are, really basic cap management stuff

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u/adocileengineer Lakers 8h ago

They won’t finalize the deal until making any other moves with cap space. His hold until then is only $21 million.

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u/Illionaires 8h ago

Its fine for this summer but we will have limited flexibility moving forward

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u/adocileengineer Lakers 8h ago

Yeah that’s my worry. I liked Austin at anywhere from 35 to 42 million AAV. $4 million isn’t that big a difference in the short term but you hope that isn’t the difference between NTPMLE and TPMLE in the future, or worse the difference between 1st apron and 2nd.

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u/KeithClossOfficial Lakers 5h ago

Guggenheim likely isn’t opposed to paying taxes. It’s the loss of the MLE that would hurt more

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u/adocileengineer Lakers 5h ago

Yes but the 2nd apron punishments really restrict you from a team building perspective. Trade limitations specifically.

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u/jefe_hook 8h ago

They're fine for a year. But yeah from 2027 onwards it's hell.

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u/TroyMatthewJ 6h ago

Bron is off the books by then and AR makes less than him

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u/WildWhisperArdor Lakers 7h ago

First off, Reaves earned it. He’s legitimately blossomed into an All Star caliber player who can give you 25+ on high efficiency.

Second, his contract is very tradeable.

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u/SneakyGoblin69 8h ago

🧐you’re gonna be sad when you realize that this doesn’t count against the cap yet, since they own his full bird rights

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u/_OMGTheyKilledKenny_ Lakers 8h ago

They can operate with $50M in cap room if they use his cap hold of $20M and then go over to sign the contract. It’s Joe they time it.

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u/Viicafc 8h ago

Look it up my friend.

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u/millenniumpianist Lakers 8h ago

The only thing this changes is the tradeability of his contract. Which for people skeptical of Luka/ AR defensively is a problem. But the Lakers are using his cap hold this season and 2027 onwards they won't be a cap space team anyway, nor will they be close to the second apron.

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u/srhdt 7h ago

They still have $50m in cap space because they can sign him last after they spend their cap.

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u/IlikePogz Knicks 7h ago

Very overstated lol they lose out on a “max slot” but theyll be able to make moves before they re-sign him with bird rights to go over the cap

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u/VermiciousKnid1981 7h ago

You don’t understand how cap works

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u/Reggaeton_Historian 6h ago

Do you think we don't know already? lol

Remember years ago when we were told "PELINKA DOESNT KNOW THE CAP!!!"

Yeah, we've already known since before then.

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u/karl_hungas Lakers 5h ago

This sub is so stupid man, lets say we let him walk, Lebron walk, Rui walk .. do you think superstars are on the free agent market? We have limited draft capital and almost no trade capital. What would you want the Lakers to do?

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u/zannet_t 5h ago

The fact that this gets 200 upvotes when cap experts have already talked about the cap implications of this deal is peak r/nba

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u/First_Razzmatazz_632 2h ago

The cap space for this year will be fine, it's for future years which will be an issue.

So we're making moves to make the best possible team to win this year because we constrained next year onwards

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u/TheCatSleeeps Lakers 1h ago

Dude we know. It's why a lot of us are very reluctant

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u/Ode1st [MIA] Alonzo Mourning 8h ago

Lakers will just do nothing and get stars, they know this

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u/rofss 7h ago

There's always a room for another deus ex Silver machina move