The Detroit Pistons are expected to make a push for Austin Reaves this offseason if he becomes a free agent just over two weeks from now
Now that every team in the league is officially onto the offseason, the Detroit Pistons are sitting alongside the rest of the NBA for the next week and a half before the draft arrives. One week later, free agency will open up, which will really bring out the hot stove atmosphere for the basketball world.
That specific period from when the 2026 NBA Draft starts to when free agency opens up on June 30 is actually a very crucial period for teams and players across the league. For instance, take fifth-year Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves for example. After a handful of years in Tinseltown (where he outperformed expectations in the last three), Reaves possesses a player option in his contract, so he’d be eligible to turn down his incoming $14.8 million salary for the 2026-27 campaign in lieu of landing a more lucrative offer during free agency.
Given that possibility, Reaves is widely expected to do just that after scoring 23.3 points with 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game last season for LA, numbers which would generally command a much higher Average Annual Value from a salary perspective. The deadline for those with a player option to either exercise that clause or decline the option to enter free agency arrives on June 29, which is the day before free agency opens up formally.
Given that timeline, Reaves could end up on the open market in just under three week’s time, and the Detroit Pistons are expected to make a push for the talented scorer and distributor. According to Dan Woike of The Athletic, the Pistons are part of a quickly-growing contingent of teams that feel like Reaves could benefit their squad, and Detroit will likely pursue the Arkansas product if he’s available in an attempt to shore up their own perimeter and secondary scoring.
During the 2025-26 campaign, Reaves had an injury-riddled season that stifled his production a bit, but it was still evident that on any given night he could light it up for the Lakers even with Luka Doncic and/or LeBron James in the lineup. In fact, the more James and Doncic deferred to Reaves throughout the season, the more the 6-5 guard stepped up with big shots in clutch situations for Los Angeles, and he established himself as one of the more dangerous scorers to potentially hit the free agent market this summer.
From a fit standpoint, Detroit is not necessarily short in depth when considering the backcourt with Cade Cunningham, Daniss Jenkins, Caris LeVert, Marcus Sasser and Chaz Lanier still under contract next season, especially considering Lanier struggled to find consistent playing time between the Pistons and the G-League’s Motor City Cruise. Regardless of that fact, Reaves possesses a scoring ability that would immediately thrust himself into the Detroit starting lineup by virtue of his 36.8% career conversion rate from long-range and his optionality as a distributor with the ball.
Now, the Lakers will likely put up a strong fight for Reaves if he does enter free agency, so the Pistons would have an uphill battle in uprooting the sharp-shooter from the only NBA environment that he’s called home through five seasons, and that’s not even considering the other teams that will make a run at the shooting guard this summer.
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