NBA exec says Austin Reaves and Lakers intend to stay together

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves is turning heads this season. He’s burst onto the scene and played like a bona fide superstar thus far in his fifth NBA campaign, as he’s averaging 34.2 points, 10.0 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game. The undrafted sensation has kept the Lakers afloat lately with stars Luka Doncic and LeBron James on the shelf.

Amid Reaves’ torrid start to the season, one NBA executive in the Western Conference indicated that the 27-year-old is playing his way into a big contract in the summer of 2026. The consensus assumption is that he will turn down his player option for the 2026-27 season and hit unrestricted free agency next summer.

“He’s always been a very good player, but now he’s in a role where he can have the ball and generate a lot of offense,” the exec said of Reaves, per ESPN. “Someone is going to pay him a lot of money next summer.”

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps added more intel.

“The belief around the league is that $30 million per year is the absolute baseline for Reaves’ services,” Bontemps wrote. “(There are currently 59 NBA players making at least that much.)

“Another executive theorized that with Reaves being able to get as much as four years and roughly $180 million from another team in free agency, that a five-year deal for more total dollars could be a good compromise to get a deal done to keep Reaves in L.A.”

The second executive said that Reaves and the Lakers intend to stay together.

“I don’t think he’s going to quite keep up this pace because LeBron will take away touches,” the executive said, “but he is good and the Lakers intend to keep him and he intends to stay, so my guess is it gets done.”

Those words from the anonymous executive should come as music to the ears of Lakers fans with Reaves’ future with the team past this season still up in the air. He could have signed an extension with the Lakers before the start of the campaign but opted not to.

However, the rationale for that decision was clear, as league rules limited how much the Lakers were able to offer. Reaves would have had to settle for a four-year deal worth around $89 million this past offseason, and he’s clearly worth a whole lot more than that on the open market.

The Lakers are an impressive 2-1 on the season in games without Doncic and James, and fans of the team should largely thank Reaves for that fact. He’s been the straw that’s stirred the team’s offense as both a scorer and playmaker, and it’s conceivable that he keeps up this level of play until L.A.’s stars return to the lineup.

However, Doncic could get back out on the court as soon as the Lakers’ matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. Los Angeles has him listed as questionable to suit up in that contest.