As far as anyone can tell, the Los Angeles Lakers want LeBron James to stay with them this summer once he becomes a free agent. But even though they could have as much as roughly $50 million of salary cap space, the math may not math as far as being able to offer James enough money while also doing the other things they want to do with their roster.
The Lakers have several other players who are about to become free agents whom they want to keep, beginning with Austin Reaves. Reaves will almost certainly opt out of his contract this offseason, and he could reportedly cost them around $40 million a year to retain.
Jovan Buha, a beat writer who covers the team, said on a recent episode of his “Buha’s Block” podcast that keeping Reaves is a higher priority for it than keeping James.
“There are two big differences between LeBron and Austin right now. One, LeBron is a short-term solution. Austin is viewed by the franchise as a long-term cornerstone,” said Buha.
“So, if it comes down to would you rather pay Austin $40 million for the next five years or LeBron 40 million for one year, they’re going to prioritize the long-term contract here. So, that’s like Austin is more of a priority for the Lakers than LeBron is. That’s just a fact. So, that’s one part of it.
“The second part of it is that Austin is going to have a market, and LeBron, maybe he wants to go to Chicago or Brooklyn. I do not foresee that. But the issue with LeBron is that all of the teams that are going to want LeBron are going to have somewhere between a vet minimum offer and a non-taxpayer MLE offer. So LeBron can’t leverage the market against the Lakers the same way Austin can.
“Austin can go get a monster contract offer from Chicago or a monster contract offer from Brooklyn and put pressure on the Lakers to be like, ‘They’re about to pay me $40 million annually. You need, you know, maybe I’ll take a haircut off of that, but you need to give me that fifth year, and it needs to be pretty close to 40 million.’ LeBron is not gonna have the same leverage.
“Like, so on some level, like I think it’s really a leverage thing where Austin has leverage in terms of being a long-term piece for the franchise, where LeBron is at most a two-year piece, not, you know, one to two-year piece. And then Austin could actually go out and get a max offer from people that LeBron is just not gonna go get because he doesn’t want to go play in Brooklyn or Chicago, and he doesn’t really fit their timeline either.
“So that’s where I think that the key thing is, like it’s not about who’s better or who is better for next season. It’s about the longer term; the Lakers want to retain Austin and retain that asset, and then Austin also is going to have some more competition on the market than LeBron is.
“LeBron can’t say, “Oh, the Cavs are going to pay me $40 million. You have to pay me $40 million.” That’s just not possible. So, that’s where I think, from a leverage perspective, Austin has more leverage in this situation. And Austin, I think, is going to get a bigger contract with the Lakers because of that, or partly because of that.”
While general manager Rob Pelinka has said he wants James to end his career with the Lakers, the future Hall of Famer is 41 years of age and, in all likelihood, has just one or two years left in his career. Reaves, however, just turned 28 years of age and is a rising star. He averaged 23.3 points and 5.5 assists a game this season, and one has to wonder if he could raise his scoring average yet again if and when James leaves.
The reality is that Luka Doncic is the new cornerstone of the Lakers franchise, and the team needs to build a championship team around him as soon as possible. Giving James a max contract is seen by many fans as an impediment to that objective.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers will prioritize re-signing one player over LeBron James
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
