The Los Angeles Lakers are down their two best players in guard Luka Doncic and forward LeBron James. James has yet to make his season debut while Doncic has sat out the last two contests, but if there’s anything to glean from their absences, it’s that guard Austin Reaves has made the most of his additional touches.
Though the 2025-26 season is still very much in its fledgling stages, Reaves has played as well as anyone in the league up to this point. Through four games, he’s averaging 35.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists per contest. Amid his nuclear start to the campaign and with his Lakers future up in the air past this season, a report has surfaced indicating that his “affinity” for the team is well known.
“The Reaves dynamic has potential shades of what transpired with Doncic in Dallas, when Jalen Brunson opted to leave the [Dallas] Mavericks for the New York Knicks and the chance to have his own team in 2022,” Sam Amick wrote. “Add in the fact that James could decide to retire at any given moment, and the prospect of Doncic being left without an elite core around him is real.
“Then again, Reaves’ desire to truly contend, as well as his affinity for the Lakers experience, is well known around the team. If they find a way to be elite, then perhaps that becomes an incentive to stay. What’s more, it should count for something that Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka have consistently resisted pressure to trade Reaves for a star player because of their belief in him.”
Reaves’ long-term future with the Lakers is looking murky at the moment because of his contractual situation. The undrafted guard has a player option on his deal for the 2026-27 campaign, and assuming he doesn’t want to remain one of the league’s most underpaid talents, it’s likely he will decline that option and hit the open market in the summer of 2026.
There maybe should be a bigger sense of urgency among the Lakers to retain Reaves than there’s ever been with his scorching start to the season. He’s dropped a whopping 92 points in his last two games alone — including a 51-point explosion against the Sacramento Kings — and it’s not difficult to envision him being Los Angeles’ second-best player and scorer once James decides to call it quits on his pro career. The four-time champion will probably retire from the best basketball league sooner rather than later.
While it’s probably unrealistic to think Reaves can continue his current level of play when Doncic and James are back in the fold, retaining him should maybe still be the Lakers’ top priority next offseason.
Reaves has helped the Lakers stay afloat in the standings of late with their dynamic duo sidelined, and perhaps he will score 40-plus points for the third game in a row against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night. Minnesota is 2-2 on the season and on the heels of a loss to the Denver Nuggets.