Lakers guard Austin Reaves revealed in a recent interview that the Spurs and Rockets were among his potential options in free agency before he reached a deal to remain in Los Angeles.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype has since provided more details on those what-if scenarios, citing league sources who say San Antonio considered an offer sheet for Reaves that would have been worth $21MM per season.
However, according to Scotto, the Spurs were concerned that the Lakers would simply match their offer sheet and that they might miss out on other opportunities to use their cap room while they awaited L.A.’s decision. The Lakers wouldn’t have had to officially match an offer sheet for Reaves until the end of the day on July 7 and could have tied up San Antonio’s space in the meantime.
As for the Rockets, they were “closely monitoring” Reaves and were prepared to put together a lucrative offer sheet if they had failed to land top target Fred VanVleet, sources tell Scotto. When VanVleet agreed to a three-year, maximum-salary deal with Houston, the team didn’t see the need to spend big on another backcourt player.
Reaves’ restricted free agency was an uncommon case, since he had accumulated just two years of NBA experience and was therefore subject to the Gilbert Arenas provision.
Although the Lakers could only offer Reaves about $53.8MM over four years using his Early Bird rights, the Arenas provision allowed a rival team with cap room to give him a bigger, back-loaded offer sheet worth up to nearly $102MM over four years — the Lakers would have had the right to match any offer sheet despite not being able to offer Reaves that much money directly.
Ultimately, no rival suitors decided to aggressively pursue Reaves, allowing the Lakers to bring him back on his maximum Early Bird deal, worth $53.8MM across four seasons. Following a breakout season in which he averaged 13.0 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game with an excellent .529/.398/.864 shooting line, the 25-year-old may turn out to be a bargain at that price.
Didn’t we learn this a week ago?
We definitely knew the Spurs had the cap space to do it, but we didn’t know they actually considered it. It had also been reported that the Lakers would have tied up the Spurs’ cap space (or the Rockets’) as long as possible if they signed Reeves to an offer sheet.
Don’t believe the $21MM per year figure was out there until today.
Not offering 20 by the Pistons, Spurs and Rockets were dumb.
Adding talent without losing draft capital is just smart. The Rockets can just trade FVV is they want for more picks or young guys if they want if things don’t work out right. Same with Bruce Brown and Pacers.
What would Reaves bring back in return if he was on a 4/84 deal?
I considered moving to Rio.
If Pop wanted to play games the Lakers could right back by not matching until the very last second and therfore clogging up their cap room for 48 hours
Sure but what other opportunities was San Antonio afraid to miss out on? They were about as quite as a team could be during FA?
Agreed. I’m confused. They didn’t try top get anyone else, so why were they afraid of tying up their their cap by giving Reeves an offer? This sounds like bs.
This was a pretty weak class of free-agents. There’s way, way more to be had in next years class. Not a Spurs fan but I do respect how they do things. Off the top of my head they’re one of the few teams that’s not spent money just to spend money and then end up killing their cap with a dumb contract.
Like, I have no idea why Houston thought it was smart to give Dillion Brooks $80m when no one else would’ve even offered half of that. Congrats for murdering your cap!
I think Houston knows that at best they are 2 years away from contending. Oversized deals like Brooks and FVV can be good trade ammo for the next disgruntled superstar out there. Seems like they took their shots on overpays this year rather than missing out on bigger fish in the future.
Getting involved in trades with their cap room, which they did but on smaller deals. Maybe they were hoping for something bigger to be a part of.