The first thing you need to understand is that Austin Reaves has waited for this his whole life.He’s overcome the stereotypes and assumptions. He was too skinny, too white, too untested. The competition he faced around his tiny Arkansas farm town was too soft. Wichita State thought he was just a shooter, suited to the corners. Scouts who saw him at Arkansas didn’t think he was worth a guaranteed contract.He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers — a decision orchestrated by his team — because he and his representatives felt there was a pathway to earning a spot on the roster, which he did before the team even took the court in training camp.Now, five years later, the moment he worked so hard for is here. The money Reaves will get in unrestricted free agency this summer is predicted by rival executives to exceed $40 million annually.And you’d be mistaken if you thought Reaves was just happy to be in this position. This is the moment to prove that he’s earned his spot near the top of his team’s salary-cap sheet.In his end-of-season interview, Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said he was confident the Lakers would work a deal out with Reaves.“He started his journey here as a Laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker. And we feel the same way. We want his odyssey to continue to unfold in the purple and gold,” Pelinka said. “There’s rules and timing to all of that, but I think both sides have made it abundantly clear that we want to work something out where he continues his prolific career here.”The Lakers have an exclusive negotiating window following the conclusion of the NBA season and before the opening of free agency on June 30. Because of Reaves’ relatively small cap hold ($20.9 million), the Lakers would like to agree to a deal but hold off signing Reaves until they execute the rest of their offseason business.Multiple front-office sources around the league, granted anonymity to freely discuss an opposing player, expect Reaves to have interest from the Brooklyn Nets, with a four-year, $178.5 million contract expected to be offered. League sources said the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks are among a group of interested teams that can create space to make competitive offers. Other teams could also emerge.At the same time, league sources said teams are approaching free agency with increased caution because of the restrictions tied to the league’s first and second tax aprons, potentially leading to more conservative spending than in previous summers.The timing of Reaves’ free agency certainly doesn’t hurt, even if the last time people saw him play, he wasn’t at his best. In six games after missing nearly a month with a Grade 2 oblique strain, Reaves averaged 20 points, 4 rebounds and 5.8 assists, but his turnovers were up and his efficiency was down.Still, enough scouts around the league focus more on what Reaves did this season to put him near the very top of this free-agent class, if not at the very top. In 51 games, Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists. A midseason calf injury kept him from making his first All-Star team. Only 11 other players this season averaged at least 23 points, four rebounds and five assists: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Luka Dončić, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, Cade Cunningham, James Harden, Deni Avdija, Jaylen Brown and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Jokić, Gilgeous-Alexander and Antetokounmpo were the only three to average those numbers with a better true shooting percentage than Reaves.He takes those numbers into free agency at a time when players of his caliber never become available at this stage — extensions are usually a foregone conclusion. But because Reaves was undrafted, the most the Lakers could offer before last season was a four-year, $89.2 million deal.Reaves declined it and had the best season of his career.Scarcity has certainly aided his free-agency case and helped ease some of the concerns teams have about him (defense, durability) because of overall belief in the things Reaves can do and the intangibles he possesses. His critics point at his last three playoff appearances (two of which came while injured) and say he can’t handle the physicality of the postseason. His defenders say it wasn’t a problem in his first playoffs, and every time he’s been presented with a challenge in the NBA, he’s eventually met it.There’s a way you can spin the story where the undrafted guard from the Arkansas farm, the one who’s ridden a wave of competitiveness and skill to the same starting backcourt as his boyhood idol, Kobe Bryant, would do whatever he could to make things easy on the Lakers.He does, after all, want to remain with the team. He does, after all, have a real relationship with Dončić, a real relationship with fellow free agent LeBron James and a real relationship (and shared respect) with his coach, JJ Redick. He does, after all, love to play golf and love to drive down the 405 South to his country club on off days to play until after the sun sets over Los Angeles.Why would he leave all this? Well, money for one.This isn’t a greed thing so much as it is a value thing, and in the NBA, salary is the best way you show a player he’s valued. And Reaves’ entire journey to the NBA has been defined by being undervalued.So why should the Lakers be the ones to pay up?Internally, there’s a strong desire to give Dončić the best-fitting teammates. And in addition to being a bit of a chameleon on the floor, Reaves fits a real roster need as a secondary playmaker who can create his own shot on the ball and be effective off of it.Provided the Lakers address other needs on the wing and at the rim, defensive concerns about a Dončić-and-Reaves pairing are overstated, one team source said. Reaves was also one of the most important voices inside the Lakers’ locker room a season ago, his leadership developing year over year.If the Lakers were competing against no one, maybe they could be more frugal in the negotiations and try to save every penny possible to throw at players who fit their other needs. If they do that, they risk losing Reaves to a better offer somewhere else.“You can’t let a talent like that walk,” one Western Conference executive said. “That would be a disaster.”That might mean paying more than the Lakers would ideally like — a problem they can solve down the road if it ever becomes one.The general belief around the NBA — and one of the reasons most rivals expect the Lakers to get a deal done — is that they can’t lose Reaves for nothing and wouldn’t have a clean pathway to a player who could so easily slot next to Dončić.It isn’t, though, the only question the Lakers need answered this summer in free agency. James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, is an unrestricted free agent. So are the Lakers’ best shooters, Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard. As is Jaxson Hayes. Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton both have player options.All of this means the Lakers could look very different next season.But Reaves is likely the first of the big decisions the Lakers make, assigning value to a player who built his reputation as a Laker and is ready to reap those rewards.