It was another season where the Los Angeles Lakers did exceed expectations but failed to lift the NBA Championship. With LeBron James not getting any younger, the franchise need to look to pieces that will help him get the chip once again before he calls time on his career.
This complicates everything as the Lakers are looking at several players and trying to chalk out a plan. The biggest decision for the franchise at the moment is to decide whether to extend Austin Reaves’s contract or not. They still have an option open to bring in Kyrie Irving in exchange. But Reaves is someone who played brilliantly in the postseason and was one of the few reasons they had a strong playoff run.
The Lakers may also look at D’Angelo Russell, Irving will surely be an upgrade over him. All in all, the Lakers’ front office will have to decide between these two. It seems like their payroll might be a problem if they intend to keep both and also go for Kyrie.
Bill Simmons was very disappointed to hear Kyrie Irving’s rumours. He could not believe that the names involved in it were of Austin Reaves, who had a terrific season with the Lakers. He feels that sticking to young Reeves is a much better deal than shifting to Kyrie who will be much more expensive and also comes with a lot of off-the-field issues and tantrums.
Speaking about the Lakers’ conundrum, Simmons shared his opinion on his podcast. “Would you trade Austin Reaves for Kyrie Irving? You’d rather pay Kyrie Irving $40 million and deal with all this stuff that comes with him over young Austin Reaves?
“How many more disappointing years in a row does Kyrie have to have before you don’t consider him a top trade target? He’s up to six. It’s six straight years of dissension, getting hurt, or just complete chaos or him refusing to play,” Simmons added.
Reaves, who is currently on a minimum could look at a new extension which will be around $50.8 million over four years in a max contract from the Lakers. Some believe that after his exceptional playoffs, many franchises are ready to offer him between $80 to $100 million. The Lakers will look to match the highest offer.
They are really tied if they want to form a lineup with Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Austin Reaves together. Irving will have to take a major pay cut to make a move to Los Angles to play alongside the other two. But the chances of that happening seem bleak.
Irving could be offered a $210 million contract for four years by the Dallas Mavericks. Now the problem is he won’t be getting anything close to $200 million at the Lakers if they intend to keep Reaves. The Lakers also need to extend Rui Hachimura’s contract, which further complicates the plan.
Hence it is upto the Lakers to trust their young gun in Austin Reaves and hand him a max contract or go for someone more experienced like Kyrie Irving, who comes with his fair share of pros and cons.
