INSIDE THE VISITING locker room of the Goal Heart in downtown Minneapolis, Lakers wing Austin Reaves had simply been offered along with his second recreation ball in 4 nights.
It was late within the night on Oct. 29. A short while earlier, with seconds left in regulation, he had break up a Wolves double-team on the prime of the important thing and sunk a floater to steal the sport for the Lakers.
With ice luggage wrapped round each of his knees, and his toes submerged in an ice tub, Reaves appeared up from his cellphone and turned to teammate Jarred Vanderbilt to current a easy, however maybe illustrative, query.
“What day is it?” he requested.
Nobody might fault Reaves for shedding his bearings. It had been a dream week by which he scored a career-high 51 factors in a win in Sacramento; dropped 41 factors in L.A. on the Portland Path Blazers the subsequent evening; after which one-upped himself two days later with a 28-point, 16-assist masterpiece that was capped by the buzzer-beater.
It had been the most effective 96-hour stretch of the 27-year-old taking pictures guard’s steadily ascending five-year NBA profession. And it was a solo-starring act, with LeBron James and Luka Doncic sidelined with accidents.
With the Lakers’ lofty 8-3 document fueled largely by Reaves, his star rise places him in squarely in the course of two main storylines:
1: Serving to the Lakers win early and sometimes sufficient that it convinces James that his finest shot to win a closing title stays in Los Angeles.
However …
2: Taking part in so properly that it may cost a little that very same Lakers workforce practically 1 / 4 billion {dollars} to maintain him.
Again contained in the locker room, Reaves ignored what he estimated to be greater than 500 unread textual content messages from of us responding to his string of feats. Amid a mixture of exhaustion and fandom, he had posed the query to Vanderbilt as a result of he was making an attempt to determine if he might catch the Los Angeles Dodgers play within the World Collection in individual.
It was Wednesday, Vanderbilt advised him.
Whereas Reaves and the Lakers have been busy beating the Timberwolves, the Dodgers had misplaced Sport 5 at house to fall down 3-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The calculus started.
With the World Collection shifting to Canada for the ultimate two video games, and the Lakers having another recreation in Memphis on Friday, it dawned on Reaves that he might make it to Sport 7 in Toronto if the Dodgers might win Sport 6. He would simply should make it from Memphis to Toronto, after which again to L.A. for Sunday’s recreation towards the Miami Warmth, on his personal dime.
Then Vanderbilt stated the quiet half out loud, underlining how Reaves’ week not solely lifted L.A. within the standings, but additionally might need additionally padded the longer term checking account of the upcoming free agent.
“Not going to lie, if I had 50 and a game-winner in the identical week, I’d be taking a PJ,” Vanderbilt stated, utilizing the shorthand title for a non-public jet that solely individuals who often take personal jets use.
“Yeah, proper,” Reaves stated. “I am taking Southwest. I am broke.”
“Not for lengthy,” Vanderbilt quipped again.
For the quantity of intrigue that resides on the intersection of James’ profession nearing its finish and the Doncic period starting in Los Angeles, it is Reaves’ continued ascension that is perhaps the season’s true figuring out issue.
Simply as quickly as Reaves proved his mettle along with his presence, he confirmed it in his absence. The Lakers appeared listless in a 122-102 loss towards an undermanned Atlanta Hawks workforce on Saturday to begin their present five-game highway journey, when Reaves missed a 3rd straight recreation with a strained proper groin.
It is a worth proposition being monitored in L.A. — and across the league.
“AR’s a stud,” an Japanese Convention entrance workplace govt advised ESPN. “If I have been the Brooklyn Nets, I’d throw all the cash at him. He has proven when he will get the keys to the engine, he can produce.”
Reaves shares the identical championship objective as his All-NBA teammates but additionally harbors the non-public aspiration to receives a commission when he reaches unrestricted free company this summer time.
“On the finish of the day, workforce success goes to assist me,” Reaves advised ESPN. “[If I] assist us, then it can assist me within the lengthy haul, while you’re successful.”
ON JUNE 23, a day after the NBA Finals ended, Reaves and his brokers, Aaron Reilly and Reggie Berry of AMR Company, joined a videoconference name with Lakers performing governor Jeanie Buss, president of basketball operations and normal supervisor Rob Pelinka, and coach JJ Redick, sources with information of the decision ESPN.
The aim of the digital name was for the Lakers to supply Reaves a four-year, $89 million contract extension.
As soon as pleasantries have been exchanged and the provide was made, sources stated, Reaves and Redick exited the decision, whereas Reilly, Berry, Buss and Pelinka stayed on to debate Reaves’ future and the course of the franchise. In whole, the decision lasted about 45 minutes, sources stated.
The Lakers have been merely checking a field. They’d provided the utmost they might below the collective bargaining settlement, and Pelinka knew Reaves would reject it. And Reaves and his camp knew and appreciated the train.
A beginning annual wage provide of $19.5 million would’ve been greater than a 2,000% increase from his rookie season, when he made $925,000, signing with L.A. after going undrafted. And a 40% increase from his 2025-2026 wage, the third 12 months of a four-year, $54M deal he signed in 2023.
“There was quite a lot of pleasure and appreciation once we obtained that provide,” Berry advised ESPN. “However we knew it was not the time to take it.”
The increase would have made Reaves simply the twenty fourth highest-paid taking pictures guard within the league, up from twenty sixth, in line with ESPN NBA entrance workplace insider Bobby Marks.
This summer time, Reaves is eligible to signal a five-year, $241 million take care of the Lakers, and 4 years, $178.5 million elsewhere, per Marks. The primary-year wage of $41.5 million constitutes 25% of the wage cap in 2026-27.
Subsequent 12 months goes to be a present. Individuals actually don’t know what’s to return. Preserve placing him in commerce rumors for second string facilities. @TheRealReggieB https://t.co/Q6ROei9DNi
— Aaron Reilly (@AMRAgency) Might 24, 2025
Reaves shouldn’t be obsessed over incomes each greenback potential on his subsequent deal, sources stated, however is aware of there’s a vary based mostly on trade requirements.
Two of his contemporaries at taking pictures guard, 26-year-old Jordan Poole and 25-year-old Tyler Herro, signed contract extensions with their authentic groups in 2022 — Golden State and Miami, respectively — that pay them 20% of the cap.
With the league’s progress since then, infused by a brand new, multibillion greenback tv rights deal, a participant making 20% of the cap in 2026-27 could be paid round $33 million.
“I attempt not to consider it. Truthfully. I’ve stated it 1,000,000 instances. I need to be in L.A. I like it,” Reaves advised ESPN. “Regardless that the opposite extension was turned down, that does not imply that I am making an attempt to go get a f—ing gigantic quantity that do not make sense. I need to be right here, I need to win. I need to do the whole lot that may assist this group be higher. So I do not attempt to consider these issues.”
REDICK SPENT THE summer time encouraging Reaves to need extra.
“The largest factor was him taking a step ahead as a pacesetter and recognizing that it is as a lot his workforce as it’s LeBron’s workforce or Luka’s workforce,” Redick advised ESPN. “And acknowledging that he does have innate, pure management expertise and with the ability to faucet into these extra constantly. I advised him, he is out of excuses. You are not the undrafted man who’s a younger participant. You are one of many [main] guys now, and he is been very attentive to that.”
That message was reiterated time and again: on the observe facility, on the golf course, by texts and late-night calls.
“He principally pulled me in and was like, ‘Clearly this is not all on you, however take management. Be a pacesetter,'” Reaves advised ESPN. “The identical discuss time and again was, ‘Your teammates such as you,’ which I do not even know if they really do, however he simply saved telling me. … ‘You sort of simply hiding within the again is over. It’s a must to take management and communicate up and be a pacesetter of this workforce.'”
Whereas James has been sidelined with sciatica, conserving him in L.A. to rehab in the course of the workforce’s early-season highway journeys, and Doncic lacking 4 of the primary 11 video games due to a sprained finger on his left hand and a bruise to his decrease left leg, the workforce has responded to Reaves’ play — and character.
“He is a little bit of that sarcastic a–hole that everybody loves,” Lakers heart Jaxson Hayes advised ESPN. “However you’ll be able to inform he genuinely cares about everybody on the workforce.”
Doncic, for his half, has taken discover, a vital step for the way forward for the Lakers. As a result of for the entire dialog about what the Lakers’ future with Doncic may appear to be, the franchise is searching for long-term items to put alongside him.
And whereas Reaves realized years in the past learn how to thrive alongside James, he has rapidly developed a communication fashion with Doncic that’s all their very own.
Their friendship, or “bromance,” as a number of workforce sources described it to ESPN, runs on a gentle stream of teasing and locker room humor.
When Reaves advised ESPN he thought Doncic might common 40 factors this season, Luka smirked and stated, “Austin’s silly.”
Days later, requested to explain Doncic, Reaves answered, “He is an fool.”
“They each realized that they each take pleasure in speaking trash — quite a bit,” Redick stated. “And their personalities in that regard are very related. And to allow them to create a bit of little bit of chemistry with one another simply by being their pure selves.”
Reaves’ early-season dominance serves one other function too — as a really public success story for the Lakers’ player-development program: from its scouting division that recognized him popping out of Oklahoma, to its entrance workplace that upgraded him from a two-way contract to an ordinary roster spot after his first coaching camp, to its participant improvement and training employees that has aided his progress.
“We sort of have an identical story — undrafted man — so undoubtedly going to do probably the most to be taught and see the whole lot he does and attempt to be one thing like him,” Lakers rookie Chris Manon, who’s presently on a two-way contract, advised ESPN. “As a result of that might match as much as an important profession for me.”
Bronny James’ too. “He is one of many guys I like to check,” James advised ESPN. “Simply how he makes use of his physique towards larger defenders. He likes to place his shoulder into larger defenders and get them off steadiness … and he simply stops on a dime rather well and units up ball screens rather well. I like to take a look at that quite a bit and attempt to implement that.”
Lakers ahead Jake LaRavia, who signed with L.A. as a free agent this summer time, additionally gravitated to Reaves’ story.
“One of many causes I selected the Lakers group was simply you see the participant improvement and the way Austin was one of many guys that is simply gotten higher yearly in each class,” LaRavia advised ESPN.
Three weeks into the season, Reaves has been the point of interest on a Lakers workforce close to the highest of the Western Convention standings. It is a perch, and a task, he would not need to change.
“I’ve all the time approached it as, do what you need to do to assist the workforce,” Reaves stated. “So, clearly, I’ve taken steps and I’ve gotten higher. The teaching employees has put extra accountability on me. However with them doing that to me, it simply exhibits me that that is what I’ve to do to assist us.
“And clearly issues will change when Bron will get again, however it’ll return to, ‘What can I do to maintain this prepare rolling?'”