The Los Angeles Lakers have less than a week to bring back Austin Reaves, Wenyen Gabriel and Stanley Johnson for the 2022-23 season.
The three young players have been practicing together for over a month now. However, the Lakers haven’t yet picked up their team options for the next year. If they want Reaves, Gabriel and Johnson to return, the Purple and Gold have to make a decision before June 29.
Asked about their future, vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka gave a vague answer — saying the coaching staff likes the trio’s effort in practice so far.
“What I’ll say is that all three of those guys have been in the building working really, really hard and we like what we see,” Pelinka said.
“We haven’t made final decisions and of course, there can be transactions that happen as we head into free agency so I don’t want to predict with certainty what the decisions on all three of those players will be but we feel really positive about all three of those guys and it’s been great to have them in the building with Darvin and his staff working hard.
“And we’ve seen growth, even over the last month, month-and-a-half.”
While Pelinka chose to be vague at this time, the Lakers are still likely to pick up the team options for all three players considering how well they played last season and the team’s lack of cap space and assets for improving the roster.
Max Christie ‘living his dream’ after Lakers picked guard with No. 35 pick
Michigan State’s Max Christie said he was “living his dream” after the Lakers bought a second-rounder to draft the guard with the No. 35 pick on Thursday. Christie added he couldn’t wait to team up with L.A.’s biggest stars.
“It’s amazing. It’s surreal. LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony — the list goes on. A bunch of great names, a bunch of great players on the Lakers team. I think I can learn a lot and get a lot better in that organization,” he said.
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