Brooklyn is expected to be one of the most aggressive teams in free agency, with Austin Reaves on their radar for a potential max offer. The talent is clear, but for a team still built around a young core and draft capital, the timing of a $45M move is far less certain.
Should the Nets pursue Austin Reaves?
The Brooklyn Nets are expected to be one of the more aggressive teams in free agency this summer, and one name that keeps coming up is Austin Reaves.
According to Dan Woike of The Athletic, multiple front-office sources around the league expect Brooklyn to make a significant push for Reaves if he reaches free agency.
"Multiple front-office sources around the league, granted anonymity to freely discuss an opposing player, expect Reaves to have interest from the Brooklyn Nets, with a four-year, $178.5 million contract expected to be offered."
On paper, it's the kind of swing that signals ambition. Reaves is coming off the best season of his career and has grown into one of the league's more productive offensive guards.
After going undrafted in 2021, he's developed into a legitimate scoring threat. This past season, he averaged 23.3 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 49 percent from the field and 36 percent from three. For a lot of teams, that production alone ends the discussion.
This isn’t about whether Reaves is good enough. He is. In fact, he’d likely step into Brooklyn’s roster and immediately be one of its best players alongside Michael Porter Jr., assuming Porter remains part of the long-term picture.
Brooklyn's situation is different from most teams pursuing high-level free agents. The Nets are still in the early stages of a rebuild and remain focused on developing a young core.
Over the past year, Brooklyn has leaned fully into a youth movement. The organization has stacked draft capital and taken clear steps toward a long-term rebuild rather than a quick reset. Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf, and Egor Demin are all expected to be part of the next core, and the Nets could very well add another guard at No. 6 in the upcoming draft.
Adding another high-usage guard to that mix would only create more questions about long-term roster construction.
A 28-year-old guard on a contract worth nearly $45 million annually doesn’t just add talent. It changes the structure of the roster. Especially when that player has never made an All-Star team. The jump from Reaves’ current deal, four years and $53.8 million, about $13.4 million per season, to a max contract is enormous, even if he has clearly outplayed that number.
Once you make that kind of move, expectations change. A max contract signals an effort to accelerate the timeline rather than continue patiently developing young talent.
Reaves would make the Nets better. There’s no debate there. He’d bring shot creation, secondary playmaking, and a steady offensive presence. But it’s still hard to look at this roster and see a move that turns Brooklyn into a true Eastern Conference contender.
People around the league widely believe Reaves will remain with the Lakers if Los Angeles offers a deal close to his maximum salary. If they do, this conversation might never really matter.
But if they don’t, he’s expected to have options. Brooklyn is widely viewed as one of the teams willing to go to that number. Still, the Lakers control the timeline. They have the first real chance to lock him in, and history suggests they move quickly when they want to keep him. Reaves re-signed with Los Angeles on the first day of free agency in 2023.
If it gets past that point, the market opens up fast. Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, and several other teams would likely enter the picture.
There’s also the reality of availability. Reaves played just 51 games last season due to injury. Not a long-term red flag on its own, but another reminder that committing max money in today’s NBA is always a bet on consistency as much as talent.
If the Nets are going to spend this kind of money, there are younger, more timeline-aligned options that might make more sense. Players like Peyton Watson, Jalen Duren, and Tari Eason fit the developmental curve better while still offering upside. Even lower-cost swings like Bennedict Mathurin, Ousmane Dieng, Mohamed Diawara, or Spencer Jones keep flexibility intact while the roster continues to take shape.
Those players might not be as polished as Reaves today. But that’s kind of the point. Brooklyn isn’t trying to be polished yet.
The worst place an NBA franchise can be is in the middle: good enough to justify spending, not good enough to seriously contend. That’s the line this decision sits on.
Reaves is a very good player. A winning player, even. But this is a question of timing more than talent.
And right now, for Brooklyn, the timing just doesn’t feel right.
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