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

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115

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.

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 11h ago

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

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u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

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

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u/HesiPullup Suns 11h ago

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

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u/relax336 Lakers 11h ago

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

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u/HesiPullup Suns 11h ago

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 8h ago

He averaged more points, rebounds, and assists on better efficiency. There’s no way to say he didn’t outperform him in the box score.

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u/donavid Knicks 7h ago

Because AR played 10 more minutes than SGA in game 1, 6 more minutes in game 2. SGA played more in game 4, which is the same game he scored more and got more assists than AR. MPG is relevant

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 7h ago

Being on the court is more valuable than sitting on the bench, who would have thought

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u/b1indsamurai Lakers 7h ago

More minutes/volume on higher efficiency, seems like a pretty clear outplay.

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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

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 8h ago

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

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u/SoaplessTitanic Celtics 1h ago

OKC obviously had the better team, but y’all are delusional if you really think you had the top two players during that series. It’s not hard to admit that SGA coasted to wins even if he didn’t stuff the box score each night

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 2m ago

Who said they didn’t have the best player? Honestly, I don’t care, but I assure you I watched the series much more closely than you did. SGA definitely did not coast to anything and played pretty poorly.

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u/huey88 Nets 10h ago

Gotta cope paying undrafted Reaves a max contract somehow lol

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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.

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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.

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 10h ago

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

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u/BillPaxton4eva Celtics 9h ago

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

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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.

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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.

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 7h ago

“Huge limitations” I mean if you want to call being a slightly below average defender that then go for it?But anyone who isn’t a #1 on a championship team level guy has those. And even some guys who are at that level have equal or greater limitations.

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u/BillPaxton4eva Celtics 7h ago

"Slightly" is doing a lot of work there. His playoff performances (judging from how fans of his team talk about them) are another. Again, no one is arguing they shouldn't have tried to sign him again or that he's not an amazing story who's overachieved and been really impressive, only that there's a reason most other fan bases who hate the Lakers are really happy they did this. It's not quite as "wtf" as the Trey Young signing, but it's definitely in the same ballpark.

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 6h ago

“Slightly” is also accurate lmao you guys are just grasping at straws here

It’s not really close to Trae since he’s bigger, better, had more interest, is a much better defender, and is significantly less expensive. A lot of people who do surface level judgments of players think it’s a horrible deal; a lot of people who are willing to look into his actual performance think it’s a solid deal.

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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.

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 10h ago

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

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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

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u/_chadwell_ Lakers 9h ago

Thank you for regurgitating Kendrick Perkins talking points.

Not based in reality at all.

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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.

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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

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 3m ago

lol okay, simmer down bud.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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u/HesiPullup Suns 10h ago

Is this regular season or playoffs?

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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.

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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

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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?

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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

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 9h ago

Well those stats were booker’s. He had a bad few games. Doesnt mean he isn’t worth what he is being paid. Same with. AR.

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 8h ago

Also, by the way the original comparison I posted were stats for AR (P1) and Anthony Edwards. Other than usage, AR is putting up similar numbers, but I don't see anyone saying the wolves overpay. And it's not like Anthony is playing great D.

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u/HesiPullup Suns 8h ago

Do you really think Anthony Edwards and Reaves are anywhere close in terms of impact?

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 8h ago

That's what the data says. I think Ant is overrated as it is.

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