Los Angeles Lakers ‘prepared to keep Austin Reaves and plan on matching offer sheets up to $100M’

The Los Angeles Lakers are prepared to seriously open up their checkbook in order to keep guard Auston Reaves and will match any contract offer he receives up to $100million this summer, according to The Athletics’ Jovan Buha. 

Reaves is set to be a restricted free agent this offseason and as of now the Lakers can only offer him a four-year contract worth $54 million, which is considered on the lower end of what he is expected to receive.

His status as an unrestricted free agent, however, allows LA to match any contract offer he may agree to with another team.

‘He’s priority No. 1 for the Lakers this offseason. I think they learned from the Alex Caruso situation,’ Buha said. 

‘Frankly, I think this would be a bigger disaster than Caruso because Reaves is a better player, and he’s shown more.’ 

The Lakers are said to be prepare match offers of up to $100 million for Austin Reaves

Reaves has produced spectacularly for a role player and has shown tons of room to improve

LA is said to be scared of repeating the mistake of allowing Alex Caruso to leave in free agency

Reaves has endured a similar rise to that of Caruso after in terms of being an undrafted free agent who worked his way into being a crucial part of the Lakers rotation.

Caruso ended up leaving the team in free agency after signing a four-year $37million contract with the Chicago Bulls in 2021.

Reaves flourished last season with the Lakers, averaging 13.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 64 games while shooting 52.9 percent from the floor and 39.8 percent from deep. 

The second-year player was even more impressive when LeBron James was sidelined with an injury from Feb. 28 through March 24, averaging 17.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists in 13 games while shooting 53.7 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent from deep. 

During his first post season run Reaves recorded impressive averages of 16.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 16 games while shooting 46.4 percent from the floor and 44.3 percent from deep.

Not too long-ago Reaves stated that he hoped to spend his entire career in purple and gold after growing up a Lakers fan.

‘I wanna be a Laker,’ Reaves said. ‘Obviously, they gave me the first opportunity. I was a huge Laker fan growing up, big Kobe [Bryant] fan, so honestly, just to be able to play for the Lakers organization is special, and I wanna be a Laker, so hopefully we can get this done, and I can stay there for hopefully my whole career.’ 

LA is also expected to match offers in order to retain Rui Hachimura according to Hoops Hype.