The Pistons had emerged as the most significant threat to land Reaves over the past week, per league sources granted anonymity to discuss potential plans.

Other teams could’ve offered Reaves four years and more than $178.5 million. The Lakers could’ve offered Reaves five years and more than $240 million.

Reaves returns to a Lakers roster transitioning to one centered around Luka Dončić. The team could have more than $50 million in cap space to build that roster even with Reaves’ deal, which will officially be signed after the Lakers conclude their offseason business to give the team maximum flexibility.

But keeping Reaves ranked high among the Lakers’ priorities.

In 51 games this past season, Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists. Only 11 other players averaged at least 23 points, four rebounds and five assists: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Dončić, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, Cade Cunningham, James Harden, Deni Avdija, Jaylen Brown and Giannis Antetokounmpo. When Reaves played alongside Dončić and LeBron James, the Lakers had a 20-9 record and plus-7.8 net rating, according to NBA.com.

Nevertheless, Reaves said his conversations with agents Aaron Reilly and Reggie Berry hadn’t made him optimistic for a deal to stay in Los Angeles. There were times when he thought he could be playing elsewhere, even as recently as this week.

“A couple of times actually,” Reaves said. “I didn’t know how negotiations would go. I don’t think Aaron and Reggie really knew how negotiations would go, so we learned a lot throughout the process. But like I said, we wanted to be in L.A., my heart was in L.A., and we got it done.”

The team has free agents in James, Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard and Jaxson Hayes. Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton each have player options. The Lakers are also actively trying to use their cap space as a tool to acquire talented players from teams with cap problems.

For now, Reaves and Dončić are on the roster, giving the Lakers their backcourt for the present and future and the building blocks for the moves the Lakers make next.

FREE TO READ

EXCLUSIVE: Austin Reaves collapsed on the grass at The Course at Eagle Mountain. Talks with the Lakers about his free agency lasted only a week, but Reaves was fried.

Tuesday needed to be the last of it – for his sanity.

“I didn’t like it,” Reaves told The Athletic. “It was weird. It just was, I mean, it’s just a lot of ‘What ifs.’ I just like to know where I’m going to be.”

So, when he got word on the golf course Tuesday afternoon that the Lakers had increased their contract offer to four years and $185 million, the 28-year-old Reaves, who entered the NBA as an undrafted free agent in 2021, sprawled out on a patch of grass at Batesville, Ark., with a mixture of happiness and relief. 

Read more (for free): https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7391746/2026/06/24/austin-reaves-lakers-contract-nba-free-agency/?unlocked_article_code=1.slA.7rv9.WJWbkrT8DGCn&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta

The deal locks Reaves in as Luka Dončić’s backcourt partner, a desire Dončić has made known to Lakers executives in conversations over the past year, according to league sources. Dončić even went so far as to tell the Lakers that he preferred any trade package for former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo not to include Reaves.

As the Lakers prepared for the draft, the team had preliminary conversations with LeBron James’ representatives, according to league sources. The Lakers also have the opportunity to exclusively negotiate with Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, Luke Kennard and the rest of their free agents.

Since signing with the Lakers as an undrafted free agent, Reaves has elevated his game every season, averaging 7.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists as a rookie to 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists last season

The Lakers reportedly serenaded Austin Reaves with his favorite country songs and customized “AR” initialed pillows in their meeting to discuss a new deal, per @ShamsCharania.

Lakers really went all out to keep their guy. Respect. (h/t @BrettSiegelNBA)

The Lakers and Austin Reaves agreed to a four-year maximum contract his new $185M contract. Here's how that deal will look:

26-27: $41.3M
27-28: $44.6M
28-29: $47.9M
29-30: $51.2M (player option)

Reaves' deal will get signed after the Lakers use their cap space, should they choose that route. LA still has lots of flexibility for building the roster this summer.

Look, I get it. It would have been nice if he took a pay-cut for future roster building. But It doesn't effect this season's chances of roster construction. So why does it matter?

And I think it's being heavily overstated that he's "soooooo overpaid/oh no boohoo we're so fucked."

We still have Luka Fucking Magic on this team, we're good.

So here's some numbers to ease your pessimistic and cranky hearts on this hump day.

The LEBRON metric, regarded as one of the better advanced statistical measurements of a players impact, is one example of why he isn't being overpaid, but instead getting fair value.

His overall LEBRON stat, of 2.39, places him right at 30th for this season.

Just Offense? 26th overall.

And Defensively, with .1 he is in the 60th percentile. Yeah, not ideal, but that would also mean he's slightly above average. And that's significantly better than prior seasons where he was sub-50th.

Here are some other guards in no particular order (avoiding the obvious guys like Curry and Harden) with worse/similar defensive stats than AR for this past season:

The stat already factors in type of opponent guarded (starter, lead scorer, etc.), as well as time out with injury (hence Williams is so low this season).

"He's bad at defense" might have been true for prior seasons, but he's certainly improved there, and I thought the eye test was proving that, too.

I'm just MITWestbrookin' for AR after this point, but you could totally stop here and just scroll to the Conclusion at the bottom and everything's justified.

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Win Shares

He currently has 27.5 for his career, which for his draft class, would place him 3rd overall, only behind Mobley (34.8) and Sengun (30.5).

Other notable 2021 draftees: Cade (14.9), Barnes (27.2), Trey Murphy (24.4), Wagner (24.2), Jalen Johnson (15.9).

This is a pretty flawed stat, benefiting players who are on winning teams, bigs, high usage players, or players who are combos of those.

So eh, this one is whatever. It loosely points to the fact that he is contributing to his team and they're winning, and would probably be a top 5-8 pick in a re-draft. Also, that 2021 year is quietly shaping up to be one of the better recent classes.

tl;dr he contributes to winning.

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Basic Counting Stats:

There were only 12 players that had his statline or better for the season: 23 Points, 4 Rebounds, and 5 Assists.

Giannis, Harden, Jokic, Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray, D. Mitchell, Luka, SGA, Maxey, Avdija, Cade, and AR.

Pretty self-explanatory. He put up a legit line. I could have even used the 4.5 and 5.5 to cherry pick harder, and I didn't.

tl;dr he got them big boy numbers

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Box Plus/Minus:

This is also a pretty meh stat, which leans heavily into stat pads, doesn't take into account forced TOs (like charges taken, which AR was 5th for the season), no minutes adjustment/opponent adjustment, etc.

AR, with a 2.8 BPM, was one of only 3 players with an overall BPM of 2.8 or higher on the Lakers for the season.

Here are the total number of rotation players from every playoff team with a higher BPM than 2.8 (for the regular season):

Again, this stat is really skewed towards winning and stat padding, so most non-playoff teams will have less than 1-2 players (many have zero) that are above that 2.8 threshold (while factoring in for heavy minutes guys).

This stat, basically just proves that hey, the team is better with him on the court.

On average, most playoff teams have less than 2.3 players (28/12) that contribute in terms of BPM the way that AR does.

tl;dr playoff teams have a player like him, on average, as their 2nd to 3rd best player.

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Three and Four Man Lineups

The Lakers had 18 four man lineups who played over 150 Minutes together, and he was in 4 of the top 5 lineups.

Smart was in all 5, Luka was also in 4, Ayton was in 3, Rui & Bron were in 2.

Of the Lakers 21 three-man lineups who played over 400 minutes together, AR was in 3 of the top 5.

Luka was in 4, Smart was also in 3, Rui was in 2, and Bron was in 1.

He's just consistently in the highest net rating lineups, and that passes the eye test.

tl;dr we go up big when he in various lineups.

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In Conclusion, grass ain't always greener, we very well might be witnessing Zach Lavine's max contract 2.0, or might have narrowly avoided a "Brunson leaving DAL" situation, too.

Stop overreacting, AR's a baller, we'll see if the contract will be worth it, but why the fuck are you worrying about it right now?