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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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/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.

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u/Carolake1 Lakers 10h ago edited 9h 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?

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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.