Austin Reaves was having another breakout season with the Los Angeles Lakes before suffering a gastrocnemius strain in late December. The undrafted guard averaged 26.6 points and 6.3 assists per game, shot 50.7% from the field and 36.5% from three-point range, and received a generous number of votes in this year’s NBA All-Star Game voting.
After this, he has one season left on his contract, and he is expected to opt out of the contract this summer in order to receive a generous salary. All signs are that he and the Lakers will try to work out a new contract so that he can stay with the team, but it’s not necessarily a sure thing that he will stay with the Lakers after this season.
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There will certainly be at least a few other teams trying to grab him this offseason. Analyst and podcaster Kevin O’Connor said on his show of the same name that the Utah Jazz will be the team to follow Reeves (h/t SLC Dunk ).
“I think the Utah Jazz are going to be a team that has a lot of interest in Austin Reeves this summer. There’s going to be a team that makes a big max offer for Reeves and he’s going to have that option. So the Lakers — like Rich Paul didn’t say — but I believe Rich Paul has equally accurate information on where Reeves is going this offseason.”
O’Connor added that the opportunity to lose Reeves this summer could be a reason the Lakers move him before the Feb. 5 trade deadline. He mentioned Trey Murphy III as an ideal trade target and said he preferred Murphy to Reeves on this Lakers team.
Murphy is a 6-foot-8 athletic forward who is averaging 22.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.6 steals this season while shooting 49.8% from the field and 38.8% from three-point range. While his New Orleans Pelicans are last in the Western Conference with a 10-34 record, at least one report suggests they are not planning to make a major trade at this time.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Analyst: Jazz will have ‘significant interest’ in Austin Reeves this summer
