![\"Brayden](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2246781091.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Arizona guard Brayden Burries.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have some amazing guard play between Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a>. However, the depth behind those two is a bit questionable.<\/p>\n Plus, Reaves is a free agent after the season, so it\u2019s hard to know for sure if he\u2019ll sign with the Lakers. Los Angeles owns their first-round pick in 2026, so they\u2019ll be able to add a dynamic young player.<\/p>\n The Lakers could prefer to add size, but adding upside at guard might not be the worst idea. In Jonathan Wasserman\u2019s new mock draft<\/a> for Bleacher Report, he projects the team to select Arizona guard Brayden Burries with the No. 28 pick.<\/p>\n \u201cBrayden Burries may have broken through at the Wildcat Classic after a slow start to the season,\u201d Wasserman wrote. \u201cScouts will still want to see him look comfortable against more credible opponents, though there is enough high school tape that suggests he\u2019s eventually going to start converting more threes and drives.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a scouting perspective, at 6\u20194\u2033, 205 pounds, he has a strong mix of size, strength and touch for attacking and tossing in floaters. He does most of his damage at the rim or behind the arc, where he\u2019s a confident shotmaker but still needs to become more consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n Burries Was Named California Mr. Basketball in 2025<\/p>\n Burries is from San Bernardino, California, and went to high school in Riverside. He was an excellent high school basketball player and was named California Mr. Basketball in 2025, which is given to the best boys basketball player in the state.<\/p>\n Considering the foothold the Lakers have on the basketball culture in Southern California, it\u2019s easy to see Burries getting excited about the idea of playing for the team that\u2019s closest to his hometown.<\/p>\n Burries does have some potential. He\u2019s 20, which is a bit old for a freshman, but he\u2019s averaging 10.6 points a game for Arizona. If he came to the Lakers, he\u2019d be able to learn from some of the best guards in the NBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reaves Looking at Huge Payday<\/p>\n There might not be a player in the NBA having a better contract year than Reaves. He turned down extension offers from the Lakers, and that\u2019s proving to be a smart strategy on his part.<\/p>\n He\u2019s averaging 28.1 points per game this season, which is 11th in the NBA. According to ESPN\u2019s Bobby Marks<\/a>, Reaves is starting at a massive payday in the offseason if he continues the high level of play.<\/p>\n \u201cTo say that Reaves has taken advantage of early season injuries to Luka Doncic and James has been an understatement\u2026 Because NBA rules restrict the Lakers from extending Reaves up to 140% of the average player (four-years, $87.4 million with a starting salary of $19.5 million next season), it is highly unlikely he will sign a new contract prior to June 30,\u201d Marks wrote. \u201cThe more likely scenario is for Reaves to decline his player option and become an unrestricted free agent\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIf he does, Reaves will be eligible to sign for up to five-years, $241 million with the Lakers. The Lakers could still have nearly $50 million in cap space even if Reaves signs a new contract.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAustin Boyd<\/a> has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. A Los Angeles native now based in Las Vegas, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shop.” More about Austin Boyd<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Arizona guard Brayden Burries. The Los Angeles Lakers have some amazing guard play between Luka Doncic and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-324187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}