The Brooklyn Nets are heading into an important offseason for the franchise as they’re looking to improve following a 2025-26 NBA season in which they finished with a lowly 20-62 record. Brooklyn was hoping that they would be able to select a franchise-level player with a top-4 pick, but after getting the No. 6 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, they may have to look elsewhere this summer.
“I think there will be competition for his services. If I’m Brooklyn or Chicago… Brooklyn drafted a million point guards and ball-handlers last year, but I don’t think any of them project to be as good as Austin Reaves currently is,” NBA reporter Jovan Buha said on the “Around the Beat” podcast with HoopsHype’s Cyro Asseo and Sam Yip. Buha was giving his take on which teams could target Reaves as he enters free-agency this offseason after a career year.
“I think the sweet spot is probably going to be around five years, 200 million. But, if you get that number down to around 35 million average annual, that’s where I could see someone, Brooklyn, Chicago, Memphis, come in and outbid them by a little bit,” Buha continued. “Everything I know about Austin, he grew up a Lakers fan, grew up a huge Kobe fan. He wants to be in LA, and the Lakers want him. So, I do expect the sides to come to an agreement.”
To Buha’s point, the Nets and Chicago Bulls are two teams with enough projected cap space to be able to sign Reaves in free-agency, as The Athletic’s Dan Woike and Sam Amick pointed out earlier this month. “Other teams that are known to have some interest in Reaves — like Utah and Atlanta, per league sources — would need to make roster moves to find the necessary space,” Woike and Amick wrote.
Reaves, 27, is coming off the best season of his career after averaging 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 49.0% from the field and 36.0% from three-point land. Reaves has a $14.8 million player option for the 2026-27 campaign that he is likely declining so once he’s on the open market, a team like the Nets could pursue him to improve their backcourt.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Could the Nets outbid the Lakers for Austin Reaves in free-agency?
Reporting by Sharif Phillips-Keaton, Nets Wire / Nets Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
