Austin Reaves is playing the best basketball of his career, and the rest of the league has noticed.
The Los Angeles Lakers guard has exploded out of the gates to start the 202526 season, averaging 31.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game while shooting 48.8 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from beyond the arc. His rise has turned what once looked like a quiet contract situation into one of the most-watched storylines in the NBA.
Reaves has the ability to opt out of the final year of his deal this summer, and if his All-Star-level play continues, his market will be enormous.
The growing interest in Reaves is a hot topic NBA insider Marc Stein discussed on his All NBA Podcast, saying there are already sharks in the water monitoring the situation.
Definitely monitoring, which is a fun thats a word that makes some people laugh, Stein said when asked if rival teams were circling. But yeah, a lot of people are monitoring.
Stein went on to explain the financial landscape shaping up ahead of free agency.
Again, the question will be, right now, there are teams projected to have cap space, Stein suggested. 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.
So, were gonna have to see when we get to July thirtieth how much cap space is actually out there. 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 Nets made it very clear that they werent gonna use it.
Despite the leagues growing curiosity, Stein made one thing clear, both sides still want the partnership to continue.
I would say the early signals more than suggest the Lakers wanna keep Austin Reaves, and Austin Reaves wants to be a Laker, Stein said. Thats where we are as we speak.
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