Austin Reaves didn’t allow himself to think of a future that included him departing the Lakers.
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“I wanted to be a Laker the whole time,” Reaves, who re-signed on a four-year, $180 million contract that finally became official on Sunday morning, told reporters in Las Vegas on Monday. “We had that period from when the season ended until the first (of July) to get something done and we figured it out before then. My heart was in L.A. the whole time.”
Reaves is now just as much a part of the Lakers’ definite future as Luka Doncic, and new center Walker Kessler, after the Lakers acquired the 7-foot-2 big man in a sign-and-trade deal with the Utah Jazz. The 28-year-old Reaves also gave his team a slight discount for financial flexibility for next offseason – taking $5 million less than the originally reported $185 million, multiple league sources familiar with the framework of Reaves’ contract confirmed to the Southern California News Group on Monday.
The monetary dip could help the Lakers offer the $15 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception next season. Heading into the late stages of the Lakers’ roster coming together, Reaves was briefly the oldest player on the team until they signed 30-year-old veteran center Kevon Looney to a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract.
“I didn’t want to be the oldest guy in the room,” Reaves told reporters with a wry tone. “But everybody knows it’s a completely different team. There’s going to be different things asked of different people and if that’s what (Coach) JJ (Redick) and the staff asks of me, I’ll do it to the best of my ability.”
For Reaves, next season will be his first in the NBA without LeBron James as a teammate. The undrafted free agent joined the Lakers after the 2021 NBA Draft, opting not to be selected in the second round in order to sign a two-way contract with the Lakers.
Reaves never played in the G League, instantly becoming a rotation player before becoming a full-time starter alongside James during the 2023-24 season. Before the 41-year-old star opted to leave the Lakers this summer, and ultimately end his career elsewhere (where is still to be determined), the four-time league MVP praised the progress Reaves has made; evolving from undrafted to a cornerstone of the franchise.
“Seeing AR grow over these five years has been nothing short of amazing,” James said the night the Lakers were swept out of the second round of the playoffs by Oklahoma City. “He’s a hard worker. He loves the game. He wants to get better and he’s not afraid of constructive criticism. And I kinda knew that from the beginning. … To see where he is today is awesome and it’s something that I knew he could be a big-time player for our ball club.”
Life without James will be an adjustment for Reaves. He’s been one of the constants on a roster that has gone through several evolutions since Reaves first signed with the team in August 2021.
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“I don’t know if I’ve honestly processed it yet,” Reaves said Monday, after averaging a career-high 23.3 points per game while shooting 49% from the field in 51 games last season. “I kind of was thinking about it last night when I got (to Las Vegas). Starting the season without (James) being on the team is going to be different for me. He’s kind of all I’ve ever known.”
Health permitting, Reaves and Doncic figure to be one of the top backcourts in the league next season.
They have become inseparable in the Lakers’ locker room since Doncic arrived in the stunning February 2024 trade with the Dallas Mavericks, leading to the Slovenian star becoming the focal point of the franchise’s future. In any combination of lineups where Doncic and Reaves were on the court last season, the Lakers recorded the second-highest plus-minus score (5.1) on any of the team’s pairs.
“Luka. I mean, he’s one of my best friends on this planet,” Reaves told reporters. “Talk to him almost every single day. He sends me videos of his golf swing and asks me what he can do to get better – and I tell him, ‘I’m not a coach.’”
Reaves has gone from believing he would end up at nearby Central Missouri University – an NCAA Division II program – coming out of high school to becoming the highest-paid undrafted free agent in NBA history. Maybe in that scenario, Reaves said Monday, he might have gone on to play overseas alongside his brother Spencer Reaves.
Austin Reaves’ career, however, followed a different path. From Wichita State, to Oklahoma, to a two-way contract opportunity, then developing into a starter for the Lakers, he has performed above expectations at every step.
Now, the spotlight is on him more than ever before.
“I took advantage of a couple opportunities and we’re sitting here today,” he said Monday. “So, it’s been fun. I don’t really look back and reflect that much because I kind of just live in the moment, but one of these days I’ll sit down and really think about what all has actually happened because it’s kind of insane.”
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