Los Angeles Lakers looking to become favorites in the NBA Western Conference
- Dexter Moreno
- Jul 5, 2023
- 2 min read
The NBA's free agency negotiation period officially kicked off at 6 p.m. ET on Friday, ahead of the league's annual moratorium period, which began Saturday at midnight. Deals can be agreed to during this period but can't be officially signed until Thursday.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Austin Reaves have agreed to a 4 year max extension.
Austin Reaves is ready to start at a $12.4 million next season which also includes a raise every season, totaling on a $54 million over four years.
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Reaves had a great second season in the league with some amazing stats: shooting 52.9% from the field, 39.8% from 3 and 86.4% from the line to go along with 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
During the regular season games, Reaves played an important role during the play in tournament. Reaves averaged 19.8 points and 6.1 assists while shooting 58% from the field. L.A. went 9-2 and ended up with the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.
The playoffs also brought success for Reaves, averaging 16.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists while starting all 16 postseason games during L.A.'s run to the Western Conference finals. Reaves was instrumental to the Lakers reaching the 2023 Western Conference Finals.
Reaves went from a two-way contract to a standard minimum contract in 2021 NBA training camp and now less than two years later, cashes in on the maximum allowable salary from the Lakers. Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka declared "I would say this resoundingly clear: Our intentions are to keep our core of young guys together."
With this statement it shows the direction Lakers would like to go with the team. They have been busy at the start of the free agency agreeing to deals Friday with Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish. On Saturday the team also agreed to contracts with D'Angelo Russell and Jaxson Hayes before retaining Reaves.
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