Key Points
- Austin Reaves agreed to a four-year, $185 million max contract with the Lakers
- It is the richest deal in NBA history for an undrafted player
- He declined a $14.9 million player option; the new deal starts at $41.3 million
- The contract includes a player option on the final 2029-30 season
Austin Reaves is staying in Los Angeles. The Lakers guard intends to sign a four-year, $185 million maximum contract, league sources told ESPN, the richest deal in NBA history for an undrafted player.
To get there, Reaves declined the $14.9 million player option on his old contract and bet on a bigger number. The new deal starts at $41.3 million in 2026-27 and climbs to $44.5 million, $47.8 million, and $51.1 million, with a player option on the final 2029-30 season that lets him hit the market again at 31. His agents at AMR Agency closed it over roughly 10 days, once teams were cleared to negotiate with their own free agents.
The number is the story. Reaves went undrafted out of Oklahoma in 2021 and spent his first two seasons as a minimum-salary rotation piece; he is now on a max. That arc is rare enough on its own, but the timing matters more. The Lakers chose to pay a homegrown guard franchise money rather than chase a name in free agency, locking their backcourt around Luka Dončić as the LeBron James era winds down. Reaves is the player they developed, and they paid to keep him.
He earned the raise on production. Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.7 rebounds last season, even as calf and oblique injuries held him to 51 games. The Lakers, no strangers to injury scares around Dončić, prioritized re-signing their own free agent before the open market could test his price.
For a franchise that has long built through stars acquired elsewhere, handing a max to a player it found undrafted is a different kind of move. It also sets the table: keep Reaves, keep Dončić, and the next decision is what the Lakers do around them.
The contract will be paid out under new ownership: Josh Kushner and Bob Iger agreed to buy the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation roughly a month after Reaves re-signed.
Source: ESPN, AP via KTLA
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