Lakers Rumors: NBA Exec Names Insane Price on Austin Reaves' Next Contract

November 01, 2025

 

Austin Reaves, LA Lakers guard, shoots the game-winner vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves


Luka Doncic was back on Friday, pouring in another 40+ points and leading the Los Angeles Lakers to victory. But Austin Reaves was handed the task of No. 1 option the previous three games, with both Doncic and LeBron James on the sidelines. And he's proven, at least in this small sample, that he can be a leading man. Reaves merely racked up 51 points, 41, and 28 in those three games as the go-to man. Check out this buzzer-beating game-winner from this week.

And it appears, with heroics like that, he's convinced observers around the sport that he'll be able to command the salary of an alpha-dog star when he enters free agency after this season. 

"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," said a Western Conference executive of Reaves. "Someone is going to pay him a lot of money next summer."

Further to that, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps, an NBA executive tells him that Reaves, if he puts his services up for grabs on the open market, could reel in as much as $180 million on a four-year deal. That's a $45M AAV. 

But the good news for the Lakers is that they should be able to keep him with a five-year deal that, while it won't be at that annual salary, would be for more total dollars, another exec told Bontemps.

"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."

He's the sixth player to average 30+ PPG and 10+ APG in his first five games of a season, while being the first Laker since Kobe Bryant 20 years ago to start a season with five straight 25+ point games. 

Reaves has a $14.9M player option on next season, but obviously, with those kind of numbers being thrown around, he'll obviously decline that and get himself a massive long-term deal, fromt he Lakers or somewhere else if necessary. 

He's upped his play in each and every season of his four years in Hollywood, averaging 20.2 points per game with 5.8 assists in 2024-25 while shooting 37.7% from downtown. This year... he's on another level.


Photo: © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
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