Austin Reaves is about to become the highest-paid undrafted player in NBA history.
The Los Angeles Lakers guard intends to sign a four-year, $185 million maximum contract to stay in Los Angeles, with a player option on the final season in 2029-30. It is the most lucrative deal ever handed to a player who went undrafted.
For someone passed over entirely in the 2021 draft, the contract caps a remarkable rise — and it tops a record that had stood for three years. Reaves now sits clear of the field for undrafted earners, a list few would have expected him to lead when he entered the league.
Austin Reaves passes Fred VanVleet for largest undrafted NBA contract
The deal, revealed by Shams Charania on X, runs at an annual average of $46.25 million and lands slightly higher than some had projected.
The Brooklyn Nets had been reported (via SI) as offering four years and $178.5 million, around $44.6 million a season.
As a pending unrestricted free agent, he could have walked for nothing, and rival teams were ready to offer a maximum deal. That left the Lakers little room to argue the figure down.
Even at a slightly steeper number than they would have liked, the Lakers knew the cost was necessary.
There is a silver lining. Reaves “intends to sign” — the guard will not eat into the cap flexibility the Lakers want this offseason. He is expected to put pen to paper only after the team uses its cap room to fill out the roster.
Reaves clears the previous undrafted record set by Fred VanVleet, whose three-year, $130 million deal with the Houston Rockets in 2023 had topped the list. Naz Reid’s five-year, $125 million extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves last year sits in third.
For the Lakers, the contract locks in Reaves as the long-term second star alongside Doncic — and points to where the franchise sees its future, with LeBron James now in the closing stretch of his career.
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