The Lakers could have a significant amount of roster turnover yet again this summer, but they’re “determined” to bring back restricted free agents Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, sources tell Marc Stein at Substack.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski stated a couple days ago that the Lakers were virtually certain to match any offer sheets that Reaves and Hachimura receive in free agency.
Stein writes that, based on his knowledge, “there is frankly no scenario” in which Reaves won’t be on the roster next season. The Lakers are “quite eager” to re-sign Hachimura as well, according to Stein.
The Lakers can only offer Reaves, a second-year guard, about $52MM over four years. Due to the Gilbert Arenas provision, his maximum offer sheet from a rival team would be upwards of $100MM over four years. The Lakers could match, but it would be harder to stomach if it approaches that figure.
Let’s say Reaves gets an $80MM offer sheet from a rival team, which seems possible based on his strong play in the second half of the season and playoffs. His starting salary in the first year, from the Lakers’ perspective, would be limited to the full mid-level exception ($12.2MM), followed by a 5% raise in year two. However, over the final two years, his salary would come in at an average annual value of about $27.5MM. He’s a good player, but that’s a lot.
Hachimura, a fourth-year forward whom the Lakers acquired from the Wizards in a January trade, had an uneven regular season with L.A., but has performed quite well in the postseason, averaging 12.3 PPG and 3.4 RPG on .588/.528/.867 shooting in 15 games (23.1 MPG). His four-year max offer from a rival club would be $144MM+, but there’s virtually zero chance of that happening. Something like $60-70MM over four years could be within reach, however.
Not to be a troll (jk) but I’m determined to seduce Elon Musk so I have enough money to rule the world…doesn’t mean I will.
Elon Musk doesn’t rule the world…
No one who is walking meme rules anything…
Rui is going to be a BEAST next year
He won’t overly excite the box score checkers here (2k nation) but he’s going to take a sizable leap for those who watch the games live and it’s going to be thrilling to see unfold
I see him earning himself up to 34+ mins in short order and never relinquishing it rest of season. He’s going to be an absolute staple of this team
I’ve been watching Rui since Gonzaga, ( I went there) and while I like his game I can say with some certainty he doesn’t have much beast in him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good guy to have on your team but…
If the Lakers don’t at least retain one of them Pelinka should be fired…
What about Dlo? lol.
S&T somewhere
Would not be for anyone good coming back to the Lakers. Nobody is giving D’Lo a big contract.
Find ANYTHING to make use of the salary slot…
The Lakers will look for a sign and trade, but they might have to trade for a package they can trade on for better players…
The Lakers will match whatever offer Reaves gets. Hachimura is a less certain situation but teams have his underwhelming Wizards time to question and that will probably keep the offers from getting out of hand.
Lakers are screwed! Won’t be able to afford to bring back all the players. Other teams will make crazy offers and that’s that.
Wrong. You clearly don’t understand how restricted free agency works. And the Lakers don’t need to bring back all the players. They will be just fine without DLo.
The article says lakers can’t afford to bring them back as they are capped m. Oops!
Other teams will scoop them up or max the makers out…dirty league
No, that is not what the article says. It says “the Lakers were virtually certain to match any offer sheets that Reaves and Hachimura receive in free agency”. Oops (Someone needs remedial reading comprehension). It goes on further to explain how the Lakers can match a large contract offer to Reaves and that for them it would be backloaded to the final 2 years which conveniently would be when LeBron’s contract comes off the books. So, yeah they can comfortably match offers to Reaves.
Also other teams have salary cap concerns too they can not throw crazy money around just to f*** with the Lakers.
There is several teams with cap to spend and don’t be surprised if reeves get paid lots of cash. Lakers will think twice about matching such offers. SandT not required for these teams
It is true the lakers can come up with crazy money that would make it a very bad bad deals for them to do.
If a team like the rockets makes an offer to Reeves, they are much more likely to front load his deal because of their abundance of salary cap this off-season. It would also make any player they sign’s contract much more tradable in the 3rd and 4th years of the deal when they may need the cap space to resign players or put them in position to make a trade. It also makes it a lot harder for the lakers to match because they won’t have the room to pay him $30 mil next year if they want to have any depth going forward. Considering LeBron is only getting older, I’d imagine the lakers would prefer to keep their depth and not put it all into one player.
I’d be surprised if either signed (or even sought) an offer sheet. Rui in particular. Reaves, in theory, might need one to realize his market value, but I doubt in practice it comes to that.
Other than the offer sheet that resulted from the silliness between IND and Ayton last year, what RFA has really signed one recently? Are the facts with these two guys similar to that situation? Or more typical of the situations of the hundred or so other RFA’s that were “available” the past few years?
Now now , why bring reason into this black hole of male feelings ?
Let the kids have their moment of tearing everything down then building back up a beautiful ( better) world via their trade machines and infinite wisdom
Elimination time is Holiday season for them; also busy season having to put on the red cape so much .
They need not face your burdensome obstacles called history.
Much of the blame lies with 2k. It’s got them thinking they can coach from behind their keyboards. If that were the case, then moving players and salaries around would be a light exercise.
Reeves is more than likely coming back. I don’t see anyone going crazy and giving him a max deal.
And along comes a spider ….