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Lakers rumors: Insider drops truth bomb on Austin Reaves vs. LeBron James ‘priority’
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- Lakers rumors: Insider drops truth bomb on Austin Reaves vs. LeBron James ‘priority’
Lakers rumors: Insider drops truth bomb on Austin Reaves vs. LeBron James 'priority' appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The Los Angeles Lakers have some decisions to make this offseason, and it comes down to Austin Reaves and LeBron James . Reaves is due for an extension , and though the Lakers seem like they'll re-sign him, there's still a chance that he could go elsewhere, and the same goes for James.
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Lakers' reporter Jovan Buha broke down what the team's mindset could be going into free agency, and which player they may consider a priority over the other.
"There's two big differences between LeBron and Reaves right now. One, LeBron is a short-term solution. Reaves is viewed by the franchise as a long-term cornerstone. So if it comes down to, would you rather pay Reaves $40 million for the next five years, or LeBron $40 million for one year, they're going to prioritize the long-term contract here," Buha said. "Reaves is more of a priority for the Lakers than LeBron is. That's just a fact.
"The second part of it is that Reaves 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 mid-level exception offer. So LeBron can't leverage the market against the Lakers the same way Reaves can.
"Reaves can go get a monster contract offer from Chicago or Brooklyn, and put pressure on the Lakers to be like, 'They're about to pay me $40 million annually. Maybe I'll take a [hair less] than that, but you need to give me that fifth year, and it needs to be pretty close to $40 million.' Lebron is not going to have the same leverage."
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From the sound of it, Reaves may be safer than James to return to the Lakers, which makes sense. The question is, will the Lakers end up giving James what he wants as well?
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