The Brooklyn Nets could pursue Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves in free agency this offseason, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Reaves is expected to decline his player option for next season and enter unrestricted free agency this summer. The Arkansas native signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the Lakers in July 2023.
“One potential bidder to watch this summer, sources said, is the Brooklyn Nets, who will enter the offseason with more than enough salary cap space to accommodate a max-type player,” Bontemps wrote.
Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game this season while shooting 49.0% from the field, 36.0% from 3 and 87.1% from the free-throw line. He’s considered one of the best undrafted players in NBA history.
Most people around the NBA expect Reaves to re-sign with the Lakers. Reaves has a close relationship with Luka Dončić and head coach JJ Redick.
“I’d be pretty surprised if the first year starts with a 3 instead of a 4,” an East scout told Bontemps. “But the Lakers need to keep him, and by all accounts he wants to be there, so I think they make it work.”
Reaves holds career averages of 15.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in the regular season and 17.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in the playoffs. He helped the Lakers reach the Western Conference Finals in 2023.
“Several scouts and executives predict something in the range of five years, $200 million, but below his five-year max of $239 million, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks,” Bontemps wrote.
The Lakers went 53-29 this season. They beat the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs in six games but lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round in four games. Reaves missed Games 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Rockets series with an oblique injury, while Dončić missed the entire playoffs because of a severe hamstring injury.
Brooklyn had the third-worst record in the East this season at 20-62. The franchise is in deep rebuild mode, so it would be shocking to see Reaves leave the Lakers for the Nets.
