Throughout the USA’s run-up to the World Cup and its fourth-place finish in Manilla, one of the common refrains from broadcasters, analysts and fans was, “Why did no other team make a bigger offer to try and poach Austin Reaves from the Lakers?”
One team rumored to have considered such a move was the Spurs, with Reaves envisioned as part of a team being built around Victor Wembanyama. Reaves, on the Lowe Post Podcast, admitted the idea of playing with Wembanyama had an allure, but he both expected and wanted the Lakers to match any offer.
”...You know you hear things, and obviously with Wembanyama, like, you know so much upside with him, you know, your mind kind of just wonders into that basketball world what that would be like...
“I didn’t think that there was any way that the Lakers didn’t match whatever was offered. They pretty much made it pretty clear that they would match whatever. At the end of the day, I wanted to be in L.A. I love it out here, love the organization, the fans. Obviously, I wish that I could’ve got as much money as possible, but like I said, fit and opportunity, here in L.A. was really what we wanted and really where we wanted to be.”
He got what he wanted. The most the Lakers could offer Reaves is what they gave him: Four years, $53.8 million, with the final year a player option.
There had been speculation that the Spurs or another team with cap space might come in with a larger offer, rumored to be more like four years, $100 million (which, because of the Arenas Rule, would have backloaded the contract for the Lakers if they matched). The Spurs also reportedly considered a three-year, $60 million offer. However, neither the Spurs nor any team made the offer, and the reason was not incompetence (as some wanted to suggest), but rather the same reason agents hate restricted free agency.
As a reminder, free agency opened on the afternoon of June 30. If the Spurs made a $100 million offer to Reaves he could not have signed it until July 6 when the free agency moratorium ended, and then the Lakers would have had 24 hours to match. Which Los Angeles would have done. However, the Spurs could not have spent any of that cap space promised to Reaves on anyone else until the Lakers responded — San Antonio would have been in a holding pattern until July 7. At the pace NBA free agency now moves — 73 players agreed to deals worth $2.8 billion in the first 24 hours of free agency, according to Spotrac — the Spurs would have missed out on numerous other players they were interested in by the time they could deal again. No team can afford to sit in that holding pattern at the start of free agency.
Reaves with Wembanyama would have been interesting, but Reaves with LeBron James and Anthony Davis can be a serious playoff threat, something they showed last season. He is the secondary shot creator the Lakers went hunting for in free agency and trades, and now they have him locked up for the next few seasons.
At a steal of a contract for the Lakers, but one Reaves also seems happy with.
