The Los Angeles Lakers’ 5-time All-NBA First Team selection Luka Dončić will enter his first full season with the team in 2025-26, and the 26-year-old superstar wants to secure the franchise’s 18th NBA title as soon as possible.
Dončić played a major role in securing two of the Lakers’ most important free agent acquisitions this summer in Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton. As his influence within the organization grows, it could only be a matter of time before Los Angeles’ general manager Rob Pelinka decides to explore the trade market with the goal of appeasing his superstar.
If the Lakers are serious about exhausting all possibilities to build a juggernaut around Dončić, one NBA writer suggests that the team’s versatile star guard, Austin Reaves, should be placed on the trade block.
“If Reaves can’t take the next step and justify the nine-figure contract he’s likely to sign in 2026, then the Lakers need to trade him by the February deadline,” FanSided’s Maxwell Ogden wrote Wednesday.
“It’s unfair on some levels, but Doncic is looking to win now, and Reaves is their most tradable asset.”
“There’s more that needs to be done than upgrading in one phase of the game, but Reaves is the player and contract who will ultimately decide if the Lakers can honor Doncic’s request to win now.”
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After authoring his best season yet, the 6-foot-5 guard still remains a potential trade candidate due to his play-style.
Reaves contributed a career-best 20.2 points, 5.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds while knocking down 37.7% of his 7.3 attempts from three-point range in 73 regular-season contests, but his development as a ball-dominant tertiary option and improved pick-and-roll ball-handler ultimately took possessions out of Dončić’s control.
The Lakers’ undrafted guard has risen to a fringe All-Star level, and he could certainly make the All-Star team one day if he were to run his own operation on a new squad. Even still, his redundant on-court pairing with Dončić could lead to a fruitful hypothetical transaction in the future.
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