An Eastern Conference team's push for Austin Reaves is the real reason the Lakers moved so fast to lock him up this summer.
Austin Reaves just signed the richest contract an undrafted player has ever received in NBA history, and he has the Detroit Pistons to thank for how quickly it happened.
The Los Angeles Lakers agreed to a four-year, $185 million deal with Reaves this summer, locking him in well before free agency even opened.
Detroit was prepared to pay Reaves like a true max player, and Los Angeles decided the risk of losing him for nothing was too great to take a chance on.
A Plan That Fell Apart Fast
A report from ClutchPoints laid out just how far the Pistons were willing to go before they ever picked up the phone about Kevin Durant.
Sources said Detroit had built a plan to sign both Reaves and Charlotte guard Coby White in free agency, giving Cade Cunningham two new scoring options after Detroit finished 60-22 and claimed the top seed in the Eastern Conference last season.
That plan only came apart once Los Angeles stepped up its offer to keep Reaves off the market entirely, and once the Hornets turned around and traded LaMelo Ball so they could lock up White as their new franchise point guard.
Detroit lost both targets within days of each other, and only then did the Pistons shift toward a Kevin Durant trade with Houston, a search that is still going as July rolls on.
Why the Fit Is Better Now
Reaves is walking into a much simpler setup than the one he had a year ago.
LeBron James is no longer on the roster, which means Reaves does not have to share touches with a third star anymore.
He now plays alongside Luka Doncic as the clear number two option, and the results were already there before the ink dried on his new deal.
The Lakers finished 53-29 and won the Pacific Division, with Doncic putting up a league-leading 33.5 points a game next to Reaves for most of the year.
Two players who can both create their own shot make for a much cleaner offense to build around, and the numbers from last season back that up.
Los Angeles posted a plus 11.6 net rating whenever Reaves and Doncic shared the floor, nearly ten times the mark Reaves and James managed together, and that gap turned into one of the stronger arguments for paying Reaves in full once free agency got close.
What Reaves Still Needs to Fix
Health is the one thing standing between Reaves and a true All-Star level season.
He played a career-low 51 games last year after a calf injury and then an oblique strain, and he was not all the way back once the playoffs started.
Reaves averaged 23.3 points on 49 percent shooting in the regular season, then followed it with an eight-point night on 3 of 16 shooting in the second round against Oklahoma City.
Staying on the floor and finding that same rhythm once the games matter most is the difference between a very good guard and the true max-level star his new contract now says he is.
