3 Teams Emerge as Betting Favorites to Land Lakers Star

Reaves found himself in the trade rumor mill as Bill Simmons of The Ringer boldly declared the Lakers’ third star would be traded this offseason.

“When Reaves gets traded this summer — and he WILL get traded – the stuff they [Lakers] get back for him is gonna make it seem worse that they [Mavericks] didn’t get him in the trade,” Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on May 11.

Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike wrote that Reaves isn’t untouchable. However, the Lakers will only trade their homegrown star on one condition.

“[Reaves] is not viewed as “untradeable” because almost no one in the NBA is untradeable. But if the Lakers are going to trade him for a center, they’re going to want one that is foundationally important — a build-around type and not a fill-in toward the obvious need they have at center (and will need to address in other ways).

“If one of the best centers in the NBA were available, the conversations might be different, but at least now, during the first part of the offseason, that just isn’t the case,” Woike wrote in his LA Times’ Lakers newsletter on Thursday.

Looming Contract Extension

The Lakers and Reaves are at a crossroads this summer.

The 26-year-old Reaves is eligible to sign a maximum of a four-year, $89.2 million contract this summer, another team-friendly deal which the Lakers would prefer him signing if they are not going to trade him.

However, the underpaid guard, who signed a four-year, $54 million deal in 2023, can get more if he is to wait another season.

According to ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks, Reaves will be eligible to sign “a contract worth up to 25% of the salary cap” of the Lakers or any team with cap space in the summer of 2026. Marks added that Reaves’ first-year starting salary in that max contract would be a whopping $42.5 million.

Reaves is coming off a breakout season, in which he averaged a career-best 20.2 points on 46% overall shooting and 37.7% from the 3-point line, 4.8 assists against 2.2 turnovers.

However, his numbers dipped in the playoffs, which heavily contributed to the Lakers’ 4-2 series loss in the first round against the No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves.

In the five games against Minnesota’s big and defensive-minded wings, Reaves struggled for 16.2 points, on 41.1% overall shooting and 31.9% from the 3-point arc, 3.6 assists against 2.8 turnovers.