Commentary: Lakers Austin Reaves got paid, now he

He’s no longer a cute little child.

He’s a $185-million man.

He’s no longer a quintessential underdog routinely pardoned for his unhealthy protection, his questionable sturdiness and his tendency to tighten up in the playoffs.

He’s a big canine who wants to own it.

Austin Reaves, the most beloved Laker, grew to become the most scrutinized Laker on Wednesday with the news that he agreed to a most four-year, $185-million contract to stay with the crew.

Kudos to him for changing into the highest-paid undrafted participant in league historical past.

Props to him for declining a wealthy extension offer last summer time to play out the season and wager on himself.

Congrats to the Lakers for turning a homegrown expertise into a budding celebrity.

Seriously, it makes you just need to hug that unkempt, headband-wearing dude and let him know how his everyman story resonates with the plenty.

Except that story is completed. That e-book has been closed. A new quantity has begun.

It’s called, “Is Austin Reaves Worth It?”

Thus far, the reply has been no.

Flash back to May, the opener of the Western Conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a week after he had returned to the court following a monthlong absence with an indirect injury.

The Lakers needed Reaves to set the tone. He instead laid an egg, capturing three for 16 from the sphere and zero for 5 from past the arc, his physique knocked clear to Tulsa by a bodily Thunder protection.

Two video games later, same factor, he shoots 5 for 13 and one for 5 from deep, permitting the Thunder to pound him to a pulp.

With Luka Doncic out and LeBron James exhausted, the Lakers desperately needed Reaves to choose up the slack. He dropped it, again and again, and the Lakers have been swept.

It was the same factor in the spring of 2025, when Reaves crumbled in the first-round series-clinching loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, capturing 5 for 14 and two for 10 in a efficiency that was, as traditional, usually neglected because he tried so onerous and accepted his shortcomings so actually.

That’s not going to work anymore. That’s not going to be enough anymore.

With this new deal, Reaves turns into the Lakers’ second cornerstone along with Doncic. They are now formally a one-two punch. They are now a twin-engine scoring machine that can rival any comparable duo in the NBA.

Guards Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic are the new one-two punch of the close to future for the Lakers.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Doncic has lived up to his end of the cut price. Will Reaves?

And what about protection? For $185 million, you’d suppose you may get some protection. Doncic wants his working mate to compensate for his questionable defensive expertise, and Reaves has yet to do that.

Simply by incomes his manner onto the Lakers roster 5 years in the past, Reaves has been a great function model for everybody who has ever been ignored or shunned or marginalized. But did the Lakers fall in love with his legend and ignore his frailties?

Yes, he averaged 23 factors per sport last season. But he only performed in a career-low 51 video games because of calf and indirect accidents, and will he add the muscle required to fend off such issues in the future?

Yes, he has been a great interview while admirably and publicly holding himself and his teammates accountable. But he’s always been ready to lead from the shadows. How will he react when 185 million microphones are pointed at him?

In a postgame interview after the Lakers’ ultimate loss against Oklahoma City this spring, Reaves was at his aw-shucks best.

“I take life day by day and I’m just blessed to have an opportunity to play for this organization, play a kid’s game,” he said, “I make good money. But like I said, I don’t think about what I’m really going to do in the future, just day by day.”

Lakers guard Austin Reaves consults with coach JJ Redick during a break in the motion during Game 3 of the sequence against the Oklahoma City Thunder in May.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

That tone has to change. He now has to suppose about the future because he is the future, of this crew, of this group, of the hopes of this metropolis.

With all of Reaves’ shortcomings, one can nearly see the unsentimental Dodgers officers wanting at Wednesday’s news and saying, “Wait, they did what?”

But in the end, the Lakers didn’t actually have a alternative. There wasn’t a free agent obtainable who may match Reaves’ prolific capturing, and no one who may match the Laker-centric story of his personal journey.

Renowned softie Rob Pelinka, who ought to rely Reaves as one of his best successes, was so moved by the chance to deliver him back that he talked about the Lakers colours when answering a query about him.

“He started his journey here as a Laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker,” Pelinka said during exit interviews this spring. “We want his odyssey to continue to unfold in the purple and gold.”

And so it is going to, for at least a number of more years, Reaves now occupying a Lakers main sidekick function made well-known during their championship years by the likes of Anthony Davis and Pau Gasol.

How candy. How scary.