Bill Simmons is dropping some tea this week about the Los Angeles Lakers.
On the latest episode of his self-titled podcast for The Ringer, Simmons dropped a bombshell prediction. He essentially guaranteed that the Lakers will be trading away Austin Reaves this offseason.
“When Reaves gets traded this summer — and he WILL get traded — the stuff [the Lakers] get back for him is gonna make it seem worse that [the Dallas Mavericks] didn’t get him in the [Luka Doncic] trade,” said Simmons.
Reaves, a homegrown Laker who is now 26 years old, has blossomed into a superb off-the-dribble shot creator and is also burgeoning into a true three-level scorer. He had a career year for the Lakers this season with averages of 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game on 46/38/88 shooting splits.
That said though, Reaves has some redundancy on a roster that already features LeBron James and Luka Doncic running the show on offense. This offseason might be the Lakers’ best chance to maximize Reaves’ trade value as well since he is under contract for a very modest $13.9 million in 2025-26 with the potential to opt out in 2026 for a richer contract.
The Lakers do indeed need to make some major upgrades to their roster this summer after falling flat in the first round of the playoffs with a five-game defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves. It became painfully obvious down the stretch of that series that they need more size down low as they were completely torched by the likes of Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert.
On a podcast appearance after the loss, James also strongly suggested that the Lakers’ roster needs more balance. The best way to do that, in terms of both timing and the potential return, might be for the Lakers to trade away Reaves this offseason.
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