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It's been looming as an undercurrent throughout this season, and the Los Angeles Lakers will be able to avoid the topic for at least a little longer.
But when this playoff term is over for the Lakers, Austin Reaves' contract situation will come to the forefront.
Reaves has a player option on his contract for the 2026-27 season, but it's for just $14.5 million, so he'll be declining that to become a free agent.
At that point, the Lakers have to decide what to do next.
ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst broke his situation down in a new article on Tuesday, before the Lakers' open their second-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
They also got an informative quote from a Western Conference GM, who isn't sure who the Lakers will be bidding against.
"[Reaves'] cap hold is $21 million and he'll want the Lakers to pay him significantly more than that," a West general manager told the ESPN duo. "What isn't clear is who the Lakers will be bidding against, because the [cap] space teams like the Bulls, Nets and Jazz may not be in the market. The best path for him is probably to come off this [oblique] injury, have a great showing against the Thunder and apply pressure to the Lakers to keep him at all costs."
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Reaves could be called upon to be immensely impressive against OKC with Luka Doncic still out. Whether Reaves is healthy enough to do that is a different question entirely.
The reality is that Reaves has shown in the last couple seasons that when he has to be the top dog, he can do it in a major way, but since the Lakers are already Doncic's team, they have to consider how he might fit within that larger context.
Free agents do often depend on bidding wars, and if the aforementioned Bulls, Nets and Jazz don't go after Reaves, then maybe the Lakers will get Reaves at a slight discount.
He's still going to earn a substantial raise on his potential player option or his current cap hold on the books for next season, but whether it's to the full extent that Reaves wants may depend on this postseason and on those other teams that could get involved.
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