Austin Reaves Just Signed the Richest Undrafted Contract in NBA History. Here’s Why It Matters.
Austin Reaves just became the richest undrafted player in NBA history. The Lakers guard is signing a four-year, $185 million max contract to stay in Los Angeles, with a player option in 2029-30.
He will make $41.3 million in the first year. That’s more than Anthony Edwards. That’s more than Donovan Mitchell. That’s more than any player ever drafted on his rookie deal in 2021, the year Reaves went undrafted out of Oklahoma.
This is the Lakers betting on Reaves as the long-term backcourt mate for Luka Doncic. With LeBron James out the door, the team needed Reaves to stay. They needed him to be the third star next to Luka and whoever the next move brings in. Paying him this kind of money was the only way to make that happen.
The Reaves story is one of the great pre-LA-arrival narratives of the last five years. He was a Wichita State transfer who went to Oklahoma and put up modest numbers. He went undrafted in 2021. He signed a two-way deal with the Lakers. Then he turned into a 20-point-a-game guard who can shoot, defend his position, and run a playoff offense.
The Lakers got him on rookie minimum money for three years. Then they got him on the four-year, $54 million extension. Now they are paying him $46 million a year on average. The arc tells you exactly how much the front office’s view of him has changed.
Critics will say he is overpaid. They are not entirely wrong. Reaves averaged 20 points and 5 assists last season. That is good. It is not $46 million good in a vacuum. But the NBA cap is going up, max contracts are going up, and the actual percentage of the cap Reaves is taking up is roughly what a borderline All-Star should command.
The fit next to Luka is the bigger question. Both players are ball-dominant. Both want to operate in the pick-and-roll. Both struggle defensively at the point of attack. JJ Redick has to figure out how to stagger their minutes, get Luka the ball in his spots, and keep Reaves engaged in a role that probably looks more like an off-ball scorer than a primary creator.
The Lakers’ bigger problem is that the rest of the roster looks thin. With LeBron leaving, Rob Pelinka needs to find a starting power forward and a backup center. The Reaves money was already accounted for in the team’s cap plan. The rest of the move requires creativity.
For Reaves, this is validation. He went undrafted. He played for the minimum. He was a fan favorite when he was the Lakers’ fourth option. Now he is the second option on a max contract with a clear long-term commitment from the franchise that took a chance on him.
The Reaves contract is the biggest data point yet that the NBA’s old hierarchy of draft pedigree versus production is breaking down. If you can play, the league will pay you. Reaves earned every dollar.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
