![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2244084604_478d71-e1761838518954.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers has now put himself in line to be one of the highest-paid players in the NBA with his play this year.<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves<\/a> and the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> were dealt a crushing blow after it was announced yesterday that star point guard Luka Doncic<\/a> will be sidelined indefinitely.\u00a0<\/p>\n Doncic, 27, went down in Thursday\u2019s game against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. He began hobbling and then reached for his hamstring in visible pain. The Lakers feared the worst at that moment.<\/p>\n The L.A. star has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, a testy injury that often takes over a month to heal.<\/p>\n Doncic\u2019s injury came at arguably the most inopportune time for the Lakers, whose surge since mid-February has allowed them to hold the third seed over the last few weeks in a tight Western Conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n The franchise is hopeful for the best-case scenario regarding Doncic\u2019s return, but with minimal regular season runway and the first round of the playoffs set for exactly two weeks from today, expecting Doncic to be ready for the first game of the postseason is purely fantasy.<\/p>\n Perhaps the best outcome is Doncic returning sometime in the second round. But remember, Los Angeles will have to get through an entire series before they can even get there.\u00a0<\/p>\n As things stand today, the Lakers would play the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> \u2014 whom they lost to in just five games in the opening round of last year\u2019s playoffs \u2014 in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n With five regular season games to go, the team has a ton of sorting out to do, and it\u2019ll start with who has been the second-best player on the roster this season.<\/p>\n Austin Reaves suddenly facing sky-high stakes in light of Doncic\u2019s injury<\/p>\n The Lakers haven\u2019t only relied on one dominant scorer; the other is Reaves, who is having the best year of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fifth-year pro is averaging 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game on 49.0% shooting overall and 36.0% from 3-point range.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reaves has emerged as an elite second-option to Doncic. The duo has been the engine of one of the league\u2019s most explosive offenses. With Doncic\u2019s dominance on the ball and Reaves\u2019 ability to move without it, the fit has been harmonious between the two stars. Their flourishing chemistry has also allowed LeBron James<\/a> to get more comfortable as he\u2019s settled into the role as a prototypical slasher.\u00a0<\/p>\n But now, things are going to have to change some.<\/p>\n GettyLakers guard Austin Reaves is planning to decline his $14.9 million player option for the 2026-27 season and undergo unrestricted free agency.<\/p>\n Doncic is out of the equation, meaning Reaves, the second-option, is perhaps going to be inserted by head coach JJ Redick as the first scoring-option on moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 27-year-old Lakers star has displayed immense bucket-getting ability in the games he\u2019s played without Doncic or James, or even both.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 10 games without Doncic in the lineup this season, Reaves is averaging 28.6 points per game on 50.3% shooting from the floor. Four of those 10 games saw Reaves rattle off at least 35 points, including games of\u00a0 41, 44 and 51 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to say the Lakers aren\u2019t ready to give Reaves a pass because Doncic has gotten hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n So \u2026 what is the harsh reality Reaves is facing?<\/p>\n This summer, Reaves is expected to decline his nearly $15 player-option and enter unrestricted free agency. If he does, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the Lakers guard is looking to change teams, he\u2019ll likely explore the market to see the kind of contract offers out there for him.<\/p>\n L.A. is firmly expected to offer Reaves a new deal in the ballpark of over $215 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Doncic\u2019s injury could either make Reaves\u2019 future or throw a serious wrench into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n With the increased offensive load in high stakes playoff games, Reaves has the opportunity to play well and consequently increase his power\u00a0 to demand more money in the offseason, whether that\u2019s from the Lakers or another team.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inversely, a poor postseason stretch could greatly drop Reaves\u2019 stock and the amount of money teams are willing to offer him.\u00a0<\/p>\n Not only does Reaves have the pressure to perform from the fans\u2019 standpoint, he could arguably make or break his next contract depending on how he plays over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n Reaves will need some contributions from James, but the 41-year-old is the oldest player in the NBA<\/a> and not the supernova he was 10 years ago. The younger Lakers star will surely be asked to do more.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Reaves has big money on his mind, now is the time to pave the way for it.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdel Ahmad<\/a> Adel is a writer with over five years of experience covering the NBA. His work has appeared on various media platforms, both national and local. More about Adel Ahmad<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers has now put himself in line to be one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-697741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116346590933280252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774987039_GettyImages-2266887339-e1774983743537.jpg\")
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