The Lakers and free agent guard Austin Reaves have reached an agreement on a deal that will keep him off the open market, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that Reaves will sign a four-year, maximum-salary contract worth a projected $185MM to remain in Los Angeles.
Reaves will turn down his $14.9MM player option for 2026/27 in order to sign the new contract. It will include a fourth-year player option, Charania adds.
It’s a massive investment in a former undrafted free agent who has emerged as a rising star for the Lakers in recent years. The 28-year-old, who initially signed with Los Angeles on a two-way deal in 2021, has increased his scoring average in each of his first five NBA seasons. In 2025/26, he averaged a career-high 23.3 points per game on .490/.360/.871 shooting while also contributing 5.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 34.5 minutes per contest.
Reaves was limited to 51 games due to injuries, including an oblique strain that sidelined him at the end of the regular season and for the first few of the games of the playoffs. However, those health issues didn’t have an impact on his value entering this summer.
Reaves was considered one of the top players eligible to reach free agency this offseason, with reporting earlier this month indicating that the Nets, one of a small handful of teams with cap room, planned to put a maximum-salary offer on the table for him. Charania reports (via Twitter) that the Pistons were also expected to make a major push for Reaves, so the Lakers got out ahead of the issue by striking a deal with the former Oklahoma Sooner before he was eligible to negotiate with rival suitors.
According to Charania (Twitter link), Reaves’ new contract will be the most lucrative deal for an undrafted player in NBA history.
As our maximum-salary projections show, based on an estimated $165MM salary cap, Reaves’ contract would start at $41.25MM in 2026/27 before eventually rising to $51.15MM on the ’29/30 player option. The exact value would be $184.8MM, though that figure could fluctuate one way or the other, depending on where exactly the salary cap comes in.
The best offer that another team could have put on the table for Reaves was $177.38MM over four years, since the Lakers can offer 8% annual raises instead of 5% raises.
More to come…
