Lakers’ Austin Reaves Already Drawing Interest From Multiple Teams Ahead of Potential Free Agency

Oct 29, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) dribbles the ball against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Lakers guard Austin Reaves has potentially made a lot of money in the absence of LeBron James — and for three games, Luca Doncic.

Reaves is averaging 31.1 points per game, the fourth-most in the NBA this season. In addition, his 9.3 assists per game are also fourth in the league as Reaves continues to prove that he can not only be a complementary piece on a winning team, but the number one option.

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In the stretch without both Doncic and James, Reaves led the Lakers to a 2-1 record, averaging over 41 points per game.

“He’s a better player than I ever was," Lakers head coach JJ Redick told reporters. "There’s certain things you do in basketball where I can’t coach you on, there’s just not. I didn’t have the game that he had… And I think his willingness to just be coached from the first day that I got this job to today, every day he’s just willing to be coached.”

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Reaves is slated to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, with the assumption being that Reaves will decline his $14.9 million player option. If he continues to keep up his production over the course of the season, he could stand to make over double that salary annually.

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Reaves is already attracting a lot of attention from teams across the league.

"A lot of people are monitoring," Stein said on the ALL NBA Podcast. “Again, the question will be, right now, there are teams projected to have cap space. But as we know, this is an era of everyone doing extensions, teams making trades, trading for guys before the February deadline to use their cap space before they even wait to free agency."

With the flexibility teams have with a malleable cap, a number of contenders could emerge for Reaves come the offseason.

“So, we’re gonna have to see when we get to July 30th how much cap space is actually out there," Stein said. "At this point, there does project to be a handful of teams with space whereas last summer we had none. Last summer, we had Brooklyn with space, and the [Brooklyn] Nets made it very clear that they weren’t gonna use it.”

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