Lakers' Future Title Hopes With Luka Hinge on Austin Reaves Contract Amid NBA Rumors

Austin Reaves has been an invaluable piece of the Lakers' puzzle thus far in the 2025-26 season, averaging 30.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 9 assists.

He followed up a 51-point show against Sacramento on October 26 with a dazzling 41-point outing the next day against Portland, and finished a magical stretch with a buzzer-beater against Minnesota.

He has stepped up and played the finest ball of his NBA career in the absence of LeBron James, proving that he can be the Robin to Luka Dončić's Batman and, more importantly, that he is worthy of consideration as one of the faces of the Lakers' future.

Now, it is time for the organization to pay him as such.

ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported, "Reaves is not obsessed over earning every dollar possible on his next deal, sources said, but knows there is a range based on industry standards."

He added that the day after last season's NBA Finals, Reaves, his representation, and the Lakers got together for a video conference call, where the budding superstar politely turned down a four-year, $89 million extension, which was the max that the team was allowed to offer per collective bargaining. The team knew he would.

"Even though the other extension was turned down, that doesn't mean that I'm trying to go get a f---ing gigantic number that don't make sense. I want to be here, I want to win. I want to do everything that can help this organization be better. So I don't try to think about those things," Reaves said.

Since then, the undrafted guard out of the University of Oklahoma has proven himself worthy of more than that and while he may not be thinking of it, the Lakers should. They must.

Dončić is the centerpiece of the Lakers' plans for the future, a star they can build around for the next decade and hope to run their NBA title totals up. To do so, though, they have to have talent surrounding him and Reaves has already exhibited the on-court chemistry that you want to compliment a star of Dončić's magnitude.

When you have a player like Reaves, who silenced some doubters with his play thus far in the season, and has proven he can take over games and make those crucial shots, it is imperative to get him under a deal that keeps him in-house for the foreseeable future.

There will absolutely be other teams that come calling if he makes it to free agency.

One Eastern Conference front office executive told McMenamin, ""If I were the Brooklyn Nets, I would throw all the money at him. He has shown when he gets the keys to the engine, he can produce."

That organization, in need of a major spark to help drag them out of the basement, is hardly the only one in a similar position that will make it a point to check in on Reaves. That is why it is of the utmost importance for the Lakers to do their diligence, crunch the numbers, and put together a deal that Reaves cannot turn down and ensures the future of the organization and its NBA Championship aspirations.

Otherwise, it risks the possibility of another team making a greater offer and Reaves leaving without Los Angeles getting anything in return, a massive fumble for an organization not known for making many of them.