Austin Reaves It has been one of the great revelations (rather confirmation) of the Los Angeles Lakers season. The second-year player, not chosen in the Draft and refished by the good eye of the GM Rob Pelinkais being key in a campaign plagued with uncertainties in LA One of the few that seem clear, at this point, is that the team will try by all means to renew the 24-year-old guard.
The problem is that it will not be easy or cheap to get it. Right now, Reaves is in his second year of contract for the minimum of 2.4 million of the collective bargaining agreement for players not selected in the NBA Draft. At the end of it, he will become a restricted free agent, although fortunately for the Angelenos they maintain the right of first refusal with offers from other franchises.
The point is that the performance of Reaves can get you exorbitant prices Right now for the Los Angeles coffers, heavily overloaded with the contracts of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. NBA regulations establish that the Lakers they can only offer him about 51 million dollars and four seasons to Reaves directly. Everything indicates that there will be franchises with a salary margin that raise that offer to about 100 million.
Once again, the player contract headaches have an emergency exit for the Lakers. The provision Gilbert Arenas, established after a similar case that affected the Warriors and that the Wizards took advantage of in their day, allows LA to have the right to match the best offer to Reaves. Of course, to achieve this they must, yes or yes, release the wage bill.
relatively recently, Alex Caruso He starred in a similar soap opera and perhaps the Lakers have learned their lesson. In his case, they didn’t match the Chicago Bulls’ offer and let him walk free, even though they knew it wouldn’t be easy to fill his hole in the market. Although they now enjoy him on the court, those in purple and gold know that in June the headaches will begin to be able to sign him with a well-deserved but expensive new contract. If they’re not willing to shell out $100 million or more, they could lose another pillar of the squad and talent with a bright future.
read also
