Details Emerge On Lakers “Scaring Off” 2 Teams From Austin Reaves Pursuit

For an undrafted player, Austin Reaves has done pretty well for himself, becoming a fan favorite in LA, and signing a 4-year, $54M contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer. That works out to an average annual salary of $13.4M.

But we're getting word that he could have gotten a multi-year $21M per season offer from at least one team, but that franchise was "scared off" and didn't make the offer.

The Spurs considered offering Austin Reaves $21M per season, but backed off after hearing that the Lakers would match any offer sheet that came his way, per @MikeAScotto pic.twitter.com/TuEtHrecdV

— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) July 26, 2023

Per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Lakers "scared off" the San Antonio Spurs by sending out smoke signals that making an offer sheet for Reaves would be futile as they would match any and all comers.

The Spurs considered offering Reaves a restricted free agency sheet worth $21 million per season, league sources told HoopsHype. Ultimately, however, the Spurs were scared off by the widespread belief that the Lakers would match any offer sheet for Reaves and chose to preserve cap space as a salary dump destination for future draft pick compensation.

The Houston Rockets were also interested in Reaves, but thought better of it and instead landed Fred VanVleet to a massive 3-year, $130M deal.  

In the end, the Lakers saved somewhere in the range of $30M or more by sending out those "scary" signals to other teams.  

Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports