Lakers’ Austin Reaves to be Free-Agent Target of Utah Jazz

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Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves

The Lakers have found themselves on something of a hot streak lately, as the team has been playing its best basketball here in early March. In all, L.A. has won six of its last seven, and its spotty record against the better teams in the league is being put in the past. The Lakers’ last two wins have been over the Timberwolves and the Knicks, and the team has moved to the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference, just a half-game behind the Rockets for No. 3 overall.

So perhaps it is too early to look ahead to the NBA offseason. a time in which the Lakers are expected to lose LeBron James–who sat out the past two big wins–and to have enough cap space to make a play for a major free-agent addition. Those are are these days, but then, it’s rare for a team of the Lakers’ caliber, both in terms of talent and in terms of franchise desirability, to have big-time cap space available.

The Lakers are planning to be creative with that space. But they’ll have to defend breakout star Austin Reaves to pull it all together.

Lakers Need to Pull Moves in the Right Order

Reaves is a tricky case this summer, because the Lakers want to keep him but they want to keep him as part of a sequence of transactions. The Lakers will have, depending on how other contract decisions go, about $50 million in cap space in the summer of 2026, but they do not want to use their space on Reaves. They want to sign Reaves, using Brid rights, once they’ve used up their cap space on another free agent or two.

Bird rights only apply after a team is over the cap. So the goal for L.A. is to spend on a top player, get over the cap, then sign Reaves.

Problem is, Reaves is an unrestricted free agent, and has no duty to wait for the Lakers to complete their other deals before he signs. Reaves might well want to secure his payday as soon as it presents itself.

Austin Reaves Targeted by the Jazz

And while the Bulls are a possibility–they have the cap space–the most likely challenge for the Lakers when it comes to Reaves is the Utah Jazz. As Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus, who is well-sources around the Lakers, said, keep an eye on Utah.

The Lakers are known to have interest in Jazz center Walker Kessler (who’s a restricted free agent), and the possibility of a Kessler-for-Reaves sign-and-trade is out there, but the ideal situation for the Jazz would be to keep Kessler and add Reaves. Similarly, the Lakers want both Kessler and Reaves, not necessarily one or the other.

As Pincus said on beat writer Jovan Buha’s “Buha’s Block” podcast this week, “I know that it is rumored from people I trust that Utah really likes Austin, I don’t think that’s a leap. I know the Lakers have been linked to Kessler for a really long time, and maybe they don’t want a player who’s been hurt.”

But just as the Jazz are on guard for the Lakers swiping Kessler with a big offer, so the Lakers must be wary of Reaves leaving for Utah.

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney