The Lakers will keep Austin Reaves and Wenyen Gabriel on their roster, guaranteeing their contracts for the remainder of the season, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Players with non-guaranteed deals have to be released by Saturday if teams want to avoid paying their full-season salaries.
Neither decision comes as a surprise, as both players have been consistent parts of the Lakers’ rotation. Reaves has started 12 games and is averaging 28.9 minutes per night, while Gabriel has made two starts and averages 14.4 minutes per game.
A second-year shooting guard, Reaves signed a two-way deal with L.A. in September of 2021 after going undrafted out of Oklahoma. That was converted to a regular contract before the start of last season, and Reaves responded with 7.3 PPG in 61 games as a rookie. His production has been even better this year, as his scoring is up to 10.8 PPG and his shooting numbers have improved to 48.8% from the field and 36% from three-point range.
Reaves, who will make $1.56MM this season, is headed for free agency in July. The Lakers can make him restricted with a $2MM qualifying offer.
Gabriel appears to have found a home with Los Angeles after playing for six teams during his first three NBA seasons. He signed a two-way contract with the Lakers last March and had it converted into a standard deal shortly before the end of the season.
L.A. picked up his second-year option in June, and Gabriel will earn $1.88MM this season. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Reaves took Kendrik Nunns spot on the Lakers.
Can LAL resign Reeves without using cap space?
Yes, they’ll have his Early Bird rights.
Thank you! So they will just have a cap hold for 130% of previous salary (1.6 mil x 1.3 = 2,1 mil) and be able to offer him 175% of his previous salary (up to the max) or 105% of the league-average salary without using cap space? league-average salary is 9.7 mil according to google, so they can offer him 10.2 mil starting salary (basically the MLE)?
Just thinking about the way the can improve the team in summer with about 30+ mil in space if they keep Reeves as a hold and finalize his deal for 10 mil/year later
Yeah, his cap hold will be very modest — the exact amount will depend on whether or not he reaches the starter criteria for RFAs, but I expect he’ll fall short and the QO will only be in the $2MM+ range.
They’ll be able to offer him a starting salary of $11MM+ using Early Bird rights (again, the exact amount won’t be set until next summer, but this season’s Early Bird amount is $10,843,350 and next season’s will increase along with the cap).