Lakers Extend Qualifying Offers To Reaves and Hachimura

On Monday night, the Los Angeles Lakers extended a $2.2 million qualifying offer to shooting guard Austin Reaves and a $7.7 million qualifying offer to forward Rui Hachimura, effectively making them restricted free agents.

The Lakers now have the right to match any contract offers the two receive, as they try to retain the core of a team that made a surprise run to the Western Conference Finals. Los Angeles may also continue to work on long-term deals with the pair.

Reaves joined the Lakers as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Oklahoma in 2021. In 61 games as a rookie, he averaged 7.1 points. That production increased to 13.0 points per game last season. Reaves shot 51.9% from the field, including 38.3% from three-point range. Over 16 playoff games, Reaves became the Lakers’ third scoring option behind the All-NBA duo of forwards LeBron James and Anthony Davis, averaging 16.9 points and shooting 44.3% from three.

The Lakers acquired Hachimura from the Washington Wizards on Jan. 23 in exchange for guard Kendrick Nunn and three second-round picks. Hachimura played in 33 games for Los Angeles and averaged 11.2 points and 4.7 rebounds. During the playoffs, Hachimura saw increased time on the perimeter as he often shared the floor with James and Davis; Hachimura boosted his shooting percentages to 55.7% from the field and 48.7% from three in the postseason.

“We want to try our hardest to keep this core of guys together and also improve around the edges,” said Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka in an introductory press conference for draft picks Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis. “I think we believe in the proof of concept of this group, and we saw defensively what we were able to do to finish the season out.”

As free agency approaches on Friday, the Lakers must now decide whether or not to pick up guard Malik Beasley’s $16.5 million team option, and if they will cut center Mo Bamba before his $10.3 million salary for 2023-24 becomes guaranteed.

Los Angeles also has the $12.4 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception available to use on a free agent, as well as the $4.5 million bi-annual exception to fill out its roster. The Lakers decided to pick up forward Jarred Vanderbilt’s $4.7 million team option for 2023-24.