2026-27 projection
| GP | MPG | FG% (FGA) | FT% (FTA) | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | 34 | .485 (15.5) | .870 (7.0) | 2.4 | 23.6 | 4.8 | 6.2 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 3.0 |
- Healthy-night role: 34 minutes — 14 at point guard and 20 at shooting guard.
- 9-category: Overall range 35-55; positive FG%, FT%, points, assists, and threes with no categorical sink beyond moderate turnovers.
- Points leagues: Overall range 35-55; free-throw volume and assists stabilize his weekly floor.
- Dynasty: Overall range 25-50 after re-signing in Los Angeles.
Projection logic
Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 2.3 threes in 34.5 minutes across 51 games in 2025-26 while shooting .490/.871. The median holds that efficient scoring shape and adds a modest assist bump because LeBron James' departure leaves more second-side creation. Collin Sexton and Quentin Grimes deepen the guard room, so the model does not simply extrapolate every vacated touch to Reaves. ESPN player statistics
He missed 19 games with a left-calf problem and then suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain in April, returning for Game 5 on April 30. A fresh Lakers contract and the absence of a reported summer restriction support 67 games rather than an aggressive injury discount. NBA oblique update · NBA free-agency report
Redraft, dynasty, and scenarios
- Median: High-end scoring guard with six-plus assists and strong percentage impact.
- Ceiling: Luka Dončić misses time, Reaves pushes toward 26 points and seven assists, and he returns top-25 per-game value.
- Floor: A crowded perimeter rotation and another soft-tissue absence move him closer to 20 points and five assists.
- Draft stance: The high-30s to mid-40s is defensible; an observed early mock selection at pick 27 looks closer to ceiling pricing than a bargain.
- Dynasty: The new contract and clean age curve are reassuring, though elite value still depends on keeping his unusual foul-drawing and shooting efficiency.
Signal board
- The Lakers' official social channel announced his return, useful as primary confirmation but not as evidence of a larger statistical role. Lakers on X
- Hashtag Basketball's July dynasty board placed him 25th; the desk uses a wider 25-50 band because dynasty markets can overpay recent career years. Dynasty rankings
Confidence
- Roster/role: High — long-term deal and established No. 2 creator.
- Minutes/rates: High — recent efficiency and role are well observed.
- Availability: Medium — calf and oblique absences lower the games projection.
Sources
- NBA: Reaves and Lakers agree to new deal
- ESPN player statistics
- NBA: Grade 2 right-oblique strain
- Official Lakers roster
Career record
Pre-NBA: Five years of college across two schools. Wichita State 2016-17 (4.1 points as a reserve, recovering from shoulder surgery) and 2017-18 (8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, .425 from three). He transferred to Oklahoma and sat 2018-19 under NCAA transfer rules, adding roughly 20 pounds during the redshirt year. Oklahoma 2019-20 as a redshirt junior: 14.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, Big 12 All-Newcomer team, including a 41-point game against TCU on March 7, 2020. Oklahoma 2020-21 as a senior: 18.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, first-team All-Big 12. Draft: undrafted in 2021. He reportedly turned down a second-round selection around pick 42 by Detroit in order to choose his landing spot, then signed a two-way contract with the Lakers on August 3, 2021 that was converted to a standard deal shortly after. The five-year, late-blooming development path is directly relevant to how his NBA curve has run.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 23 | LAL | 61 | 23.2 | 7.3 | 3.2 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.9 | .459 | .839 | 0.7 |
| 2022-23 | 24 | LAL | 64 | 28.8 | 13.0 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.3 | .529 | .864 | 1.5 |
| 2023-24 | 25 | LAL | 82 | 32.1 | 15.9 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.9 | .486 | .853 | 2.1 |
| 2024-25 | 26 | LAL | 73 | 34.9 | 20.2 | 4.5 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 2.7 | .460 | .877 | 2.4 |
| 2025-26 | 27 | LAL | 51 | 34.5 | 23.3 | 4.7 | 5.5 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.3 | .490 | .871 | 3.0 |
| Career | 331 | 30.8 | 15.8 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.8 | .483 | .865 | 1.9 |
Fantasy history: Reaves went from undraftable in 2021-22 to a late-round flier in 2022-23 to a genuine mid-round asset from 2023-24 onward. His category profile is unusually clean: he is positive or neutral in field goal percentage, free throw percentage, points, threes and assists, with no true sink category — his steals and blocks are merely thin rather than damaging. Precise season-end 9-cat finishes from Basketball Monster or Hashtag are not verifiable from public pages, so no per-season rank is asserted. The points-league shape is slightly better than the category shape for him, because his free throw volume (roughly seven attempts a game in 2025-26) converts directly into points while contributing only to a single roto category, and because his low historical turnover rate has been a points-league asset. That last advantage weakened in 2025-26: 3.0 turnovers is a career high and a real cost in both formats.
Durability: 61, 64, 82, 73, 51. The rookie and second-year absences were minor and role-related plus a left hamstring strain in January 2023 that cost roughly two weeks. 2023-24 was a full 82. 2024-25 was 73 with assorted lower-body maintenance. 2025-26 is the outlier and the reason the availability grade is medium rather than high: he missed 19 games with a left calf problem and then suffered a Grade 2 right oblique strain in April that ended his regular season, with a playoff return in Game 5 on April 30. Two separate soft-tissue events in one year at age 27 is a yellow flag rather than a red one — neither is a joint or a recurrence — but 51 games is a third of a season lost and it is the only real blemish in the file.
Trajectory: This is one of the cleanest development curves in the league: 7.3, 13.0, 15.9, 20.2, 23.3 points across five seasons, with the per-minute gains outrunning the minutes gains at every step. Minutes rose from 23.2 to 34.5 over that span, but scoring roughly tripled, so the improvement is skill and role, not clock. The 2025-26 season is the most informative because minutes were essentially flat against 2024-25 (34.5 vs 34.9) while scoring rose 3.1 points on better efficiency (.490 vs .460) — that is real, not volume. The mechanism is foul-drawing and shot selection rather than a jump-shooting spike; his three-point volume actually fell from 2.7 to 2.3 makes while his field goal percentage climbed, which points at a shift toward rim pressure and free throws. At 28 he is at the exact top of the curve, and the LeBron James departure hands him more second-side creation without making him the primary — Dončić still absorbs that. The two risks are compositional rather than physical: Sexton and Grimes compete for the same drive-and-kick possessions, and the 3.0 turnovers suggest last year's usage bump was already near the edge of what he handles cleanly. Expect the shape to hold with a modest assist bump and a small efficiency give-back.
Career sources: StatMuse career per-game by season · ESPN career stats · Austin Reaves, Wikipedia · Sports-Reference college stats · NBA.com, Grade 2 oblique strain
Open questions
- Does Reaves remain near seven free-throw attempts with Sexton attacking the same gaps?
- Will the Lakers stagger him with the second unit enough to reach the projected 6.2 assists?