Austin Reaves, the starting shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, turned up his greatest performance of the contest during the team's resounding 122-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors to clinch the series.
The 6'5" swingman, who LA signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021 out of the University of Oklahoma, scored 23 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the field (4 of 5 from 3-point range), 5 of 5 shooting from the charity stripe, along with six assists and five rebounds.
The second-year wing, who will be a restricted free agency this summer, must be re-signed by LA, according to Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register, who is now more certain than ever that they must do so.
Swanson points out that LA's president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, who took the Lakers from being the 13th seed in January to a spot in the Western Conference Finals in May, has a strong track record of improving teams. Swanson, however, is more certain than ever that Reaves must play for the Laker next season and for many years to come.
Los Angeles will be able to match any offer made to Reaves this year due to his restricted free agency. While LA can pay him up to $11.9 million as a beginning contract, the most another club can offer him in his first season is $11.4 million.
Due to the Arenas Rule, rival teams with cap space might still offer to pay Reaves during the final two seasons of a four-year contract up to a maximum contract worth somewhere between $36-38 million. Swanson thinks a rival team will overpay for Reaves this summer, despite her scepticism that a team will go quite that far.
In the first three games of this Warriors series, Reaves averaged just nine points on 32.1% shooting from the field. However, he improved his offence in the next three games, scoring 19.7 points on 48.7% shooting. Also impressive was his defence against the Splash Brothers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Swanson is certain that Reaves' excellent two-way play with Los Angeles—I believe he is currently the team's third-best player—will make him a desirable prospect to many wealthy clubs this summer.
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