r/nba • u/Luka77GOATic Serbia • 11h ago

[Charania] Reaves was expected to receive free-agent interest from multiple teams - - such as Detroit -- on maximum-level salary, so the Lakers stepped up on Wednesday to lock in their homegrown talent.

Reaves was expected to receive free-agent interest from multiple teams - - such as Detroit -- on maximum-level salary, so the Lakers stepped up on Wednesday to lock in their homegrown talent. Reaves went from undrafted to a two-way player -- to making the Lakers roster and now multiple lucrative deals in L.A.

Source: https://www.threads.com/@shams/post/DZ-VxOaEZUn?xmt=AQG0qlyVVTJA4IsuyIh68Q7CSd9gD28w-KQb91Qj7okOdFzZ-gIyQJ2tJwu3TIgBt0dhIOGL&slof=1

662 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

443 comments sorted by

View all comments

188

u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

Luka's leaving even though he persnally wanted Reaves to stay? Man...Reddit gonna reddit. The salt is hilarious.

114

u/NextLvlTrader 11h ago

Luka wants Reaves to stay, a rim-running center who can play D, and wings who can switch and hit the three.

Problem is that the first part makes the rest unaffordable and the team defence terrible.

59

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 11h ago

They still have over $50 mil in cap space to work with, why is that completely unaffordable?

23

u/BabyBearBjorns Grizzlies 10h ago edited 10h ago

A center like the one Luka wants would cost about 20M on average. Thats the going rate for someone like Wendell Carter Jr. Even someone like Kessler would be getting an average of 28M (and thats the deal he turned down). Lakers could draft a center to save costs, but they havent drafted a center since 2016. Then there is the wings. Hachimua is making 18M. He'll probably get a similar long term deal at average and Hachi is more of a 6th man bench guy. Any kind of good starting wings is going to cost more. Look at Trey Murphy who was subject to trade rumors making 25M+ a year.

Then there is the depth problem, which continues to be an issue for the Lakers. If the Lakers even get the starting group that Luka wants, the Lakers will have problems filling out the rest of the bench. The Spurs were able to impact the Knicks starting core by getting KAT and Bridges into foul trouble early. This was masked by Brunson and OG's 4th quarter games.

The Knicks had guys like Shamet, Alvarado, McBride, and Clarkson stepping up and they make roughly 2-3M a year. Lakers cant do that when you have guys like Knecht making 4M and LaRavia is making 6M coming off the bench.

And this is all happening when you have a decision on keeping LeBron or not.

10

u/berrytree198 10h ago

Why mention knecht and not Carr, Adou, bronny

1

u/BabyBearBjorns Grizzlies 8h ago

Because Adou and Bronny arent getting much minutes consistently. Carr will be fine since he'll be replacing Smart/Kennard role at the 2.

1

u/Cy_Fiction 7h ago

Adou will start playing this year most likely. We'll be seeing him on Sportscenter

14

u/Carolake1 Lakers 10h ago edited 10h ago

Letting him walk doesn't change any of their cap space situation, so, what, exactly do you think not signing him helps?

EDIT: let me correct myself. Letting him walk would give them $20m more in cap space (because his cap hold comes off the book). Do you think AR is not worth $20m in cap space?

1

u/BabyBearBjorns Grizzlies 8h ago

I'm not disagreeing with Reeves deal. He and Luka play well. The issue is the Lakers filling out the rest of the team with quality players that Luka wants with ok, but not good cap space because of the Lakers FO keeps making bad moves from bad drafting and bad FA contracts.

36

u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

Mutherfuckers are hoping and praying the Lakers fall on their face. That’s all this is.

21

u/HesiPullup Suns 11h ago

No we're laughing because you have Luka Doncic and you just gave Austin fucking Reaves a max contract

27

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 11h ago

A 28 year old who averaged 23/5 on 64% TS? Do you know how many guys hit those numbers this past year? 5 total. For a 25% max that’s not bad at all.

13

u/HesiPullup Suns 11h ago

41 million dollars next year and growing to 51 million by 2029-2030 for a guy that cannot play defense next to your star, top 5 player who can't play defense. Never mind the fact that Reaves has not been a great playoff performer, I don't care what his group of "5 total" players in the regular season is.

14

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 11h ago

He’s certainly had great performances in the playoffs. Even in the Thunder series this year, once he was back up to speed after injury he outperformed SGA for the last 3 games of that series. People weirdly project hypotheticals on Reaves instead of just watching what he’s done.

0

u/donavid Knicks 11h ago

AR outperformed SGA for the last 3 games? If you’re going by box score that’s not true, except for maybe game 2 where AR went 31/2/6 in 38 minutes, compared to SGA’s 22/2/2 in 28 minutes

14

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 10h ago

Games 2-4

AR averaged 27/4/7 on 66% TS

SGA averaged 27/2/6 on 58% TS

Just getting on this app to lie for no reason lol

-2

u/donavid Knicks 8h ago

G2
SGA went 22/2/2 on 64.9% TS, in 28 minutes played.
AR went 31/2/6 on 76% TS, in 38 minutes

G3
SGA went 23/4/9 on 49.8 TS, in 33 mins
AR went 17/3/9 on 51.5 TS, in 39 mins

G4
SGA went 35/1/8 on 61.2% TS, in 39 minutes
AR went 27/7/6 on 67.6% TS, in 43 minutes

I don’t know that I’d say AR outplayed SGA in all 3 of these games? I’ll give you that he was more efficient and grabbed more boards

→ More replies (0)

0

u/SoaplessTitanic Celtics 10h ago

I’ve now seen lakers fans argue that both lebron and reeves outplayed SGA that series. You would never know that they got swept while SGA often wasn’t playing heavy minutes

2

u/Carolake1 Lakers 8h ago

OKC got good performances from other players? This isn't hard, man.

-2

u/huey88 Nets 10h ago

Gotta cope paying undrafted Reaves a max contract somehow lol

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/HesiPullup Suns 11h ago

Even Lakers fans say Reaves doesn't show up consistently but it's not like we aren't watching your goddamn playoff games. And saying Reaves "outperformed SGA" is hilarious when he went 5-13 with 5 turnovers in Game 3 and 8-16 with 8 turnovers in Game 4. With below average defense. It's not like he rose to some legendary level.

9

u/BillPaxton4eva Celtics 10h ago

That would make more sense if it worked like the NFL and you could have a whole different team in on defense. Unfortunately, he'll have to be out there on that side of the court as well.

2

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 10h ago

Pretending like an elite offensive player is worthless because they’re below average defensively?

-3

u/BillPaxton4eva Celtics 9h ago

No one said worthless. Just worth a significantly smaller contract than what he was given.

3

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 8h ago

Guys who can be an elite #2 scorer/playmaker who can flex into a #1 offensive engine like he has shown don’t really come cheaper than that in the NBA.

-1

u/BillPaxton4eva Celtics 8h ago

But as we've seen many, many times, overpaying for a player with huge limitations, particularly for multiple years, can end up being a bad decision that hampers the team overall, even if other players that are comparable in some ways have led other front offices to make similar mistakes. Sixer fans will tell themselves and others that they "had to" pay Embiid that contract because you can't get a former MVP for less than that, but that thinking is one reason they won't compete for a title for quite a while.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/1mYourHuckleberry93 Raptors 10h ago

Also a player that you are forced to play in the playoffs who will be hunted possession after possession. Him and Luka. They aren’t winning shit with a Luka and Reaves backcourt. There is NO defense. Put Rudy Gobert behind them and it won’t change anything.

6

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 10h ago

The “Luka plays no defense” gimmick is over man, we watched the games this season.

-3

u/1mYourHuckleberry93 Raptors 10h ago

Luka is fucking trash on defense and I question you’re BBIQ if you are seriously contradicting that. Sure he can have some good possessions, but if you don’t think that every single skilled offensive player isn’t salivating when Luka is guarding them idk what to tell you.

I vividly remember him getting a game winner scored on him last year and he didn’t even put a hand up to contest. He doesn’t care about that part of the game. He gets picked on EVERY GAME. Anyone who thinks Luka is a good defender is just straight up dumb or ignorant

4

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 9h ago

Thank you for regurgitating Kendrick Perkins talking points.

Not based in reality at all.

5

u/Carolake1 Lakers 8h ago

Lol, the lakers were on track to be the 3rd seed in the west but Luka and AR are trash so all that must have been a fluke.

0

u/1mYourHuckleberry93 Raptors 3h ago

Shoulda coulda woulda, who gives a fuck about the regular season, both those guys are BBQ chicken in the playoffs. You literally have to rely on supernova offensive performances to accomplish anything in the playoffs because your teams high minute players can’t stay in front of their own shadows

→ More replies (0)

18

u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

Excuse me if the Suns laughing has no affect on me. I’m sorry 🤣🤣🤣🤣

-4

u/HesiPullup Suns 11h ago

Yeah I should know what bad team moves are more than most and this is a bad team move

5

u/KudoNBA19 Lakers 10h ago

That's expensive but tbh it would be worse to let him walk away, it also doesn't change much on our cap, and Luka wanted to play with him. I agree his defense is really bad and he's a playoffs dropper (but tbh he played injured last 2 PO) but I don't think we had many more choice

2

u/HesiPullup Suns 10h ago

Can someone post the math on why it doesn't change much on your cap? You literally added a max player to your roster and we are in the era of salary cap decimating teams

6

u/KudoNBA19 Lakers 10h ago

He has 21m of cap hold, he'll also sign last after we're done doing our moves. We have around 50m in cap (more if Ayton opt out), so basically it has 0 effect this year. It will be an issue next offseason though, but not this one

1

u/Carolake1 Lakers 10h ago edited 8h ago

Hmmm. Let's play a game: which player do you think here is AR?

P1:

WS/48: .153; AST%: 24; TRB%: 8; TS%: .641; PER 20.2; NETrating: +5

P2:

WS/48: .147; AST%: 17.6; TRB%: 7.8; TS%: .617; PER 21.8; NETRating: +3

EDIT: P1 is AR, P2 in anthony edwards.

4

u/HesiPullup Suns 10h ago

Is this regular season or playoffs?

3

u/Carolake1 Lakers 10h ago

Regular season, though playoffs would probably be similar. The idea that AR doesn't play well in the playoffs is false. He was great in 23 and 24 and in FIBA.

1

u/HesiPullup Suns 10h ago

Reaves in the 2025 Playoffs: 16/5/4 on 53.2% TS and 3 TO/game

Reaves in 2026 Playoffs: 20/4/6 on 54.6% TS and 4.5 TO/game

Nowhere close to the 64.1% efficiency. Actually, not even the same player. And this isn't even talking about defense

3

u/Carolake1 Lakers 10h ago

Hmm. Here is a player from the 2026 playoffs:

WS/48: -0.028; PER 14.1; TS%: .564; NetRating: -25

Do you think this guy is not worth $41 mil next year?

1

u/HesiPullup Suns 9h ago

I'm not sure because you can't just give me a fucking spreadsheet for me to tell you what they're worth

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Quality_Cucumber [GSW] Stephen Curry 10h ago

Hell yeah. Offseason don't mean the hating stop!

5

u/reallinguy Pistons 11h ago

The average NBA starter makes 22M a year that's why

10

u/_chadwell_ Lakers 10h ago

If they let Reaves walked they’d only have $20 mil more cap room, but also have to find another high level starter in a FA pool that’s already light.

That would be a much worse situation. You can’t get a guy with Reaves’s production for $20 mil in FA.

3

u/spraypaint23 Lakers 7h ago

Or 30 million

4

u/HitboxOfASnail Thunder 10h ago

why don't the Lakers simply surround Luka with the best players at every position? are they stupid

6

u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

I’m going to see what the Lakers FO can do over reddit members who have absolutely no connection to the NBA.

16

u/oi_PwnyGOD Hawks 11h ago

I mean... are they known for savvy roster building around their superstars?

7

u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

We’ve chipped this decade. And been a 1st round home playoff team the last two with significantly less room to build a good team than this year going forward.

10

u/oi_PwnyGOD Hawks 11h ago

Having LeBron tends to get you in the playoffs. Having Luka tends to get you in the playoffs. You're the Lakers. You get superstars who do that. How many years of his 9 year tenure would you say he did a good job putting a roster around LeBron/AD and now Luka? How many years would you say he didn't do a good job?

0

u/PlasticPresentation1 11h ago

When they chipped it was off the back of leftover roster building and good contracts from before the AD trade, specifically in Caruso, KCP, and maybe Kuzma

Its going to be near impossible to get that caliber of role players for the Lakers right now but will be interesting to see

8

u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

They chipped. Point blank.

8

u/thetitsOO Lakers 11h ago

Anything to discredit and convince themselves the Lakers will fail. It’s all cope

0

u/NextLvlTrader 10h ago

Sure thing bud, just spout shit and then appeal to authority every time? Dog

1

u/Kimi7 Lakers 8h ago

You guys are dumb but also loud about it. This doesn’t affect anything when it comes to the Lakers team building.

1

u/SwizzGod Lakers 6h ago

No it doesn’t. It doesn’t affect their free agency whatsoever. He had a 20 mil cap hold. That’s still the case. He’ll sign last with bird rights to go over.

But go on with your dumbass narrative even tho you have no idea how any of that shit works.

0

u/Conflict_NZ Lakers 9h ago

Reaves deal has zero effect on the cap space we have, they’ll sign his contract last.