The ball is in Jeanie Buss's court to avoid an Alex Caruso situation with Austin Reaves

The Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka was able to pull off some impressive trades before the deadline happened, making a stronger team that is being in pursuit of making it into the postseason.

The team has looked completely different and even changed the fandom to be afraid of being another lost season to think the squad has actual chances to contend when complete and fully healthy.

The Lakers want to run with the same team for the next season. One tricky situation to solve will be re-signing Austin Reaves, something Jeanie Buss had to handle to avoid the Alex Caruso situation.

The Athletic's Jovan Buha reported on the situation "I think this is a similar situation to DLo in terms of mutual interest on both sides. But also, there are going to be multiple suitors for Reaves. He's played everything from point guard to small forward. He can defend multiple positions and is a smart, high-IQ basketball player. He was a 50-40-90 guy for the early part of the season. He's an efficient player and someone Darvin Ham has called a Swiss Army knife this season. He can play on or off the ball. This is kind of lining up to potentially be another Alex Caruso situation where he wants to be there, and the Lakers want to retain him, but if they try to get a little too cute with the offer or negotiation, I could see him potentially leaving and going somewhere where he's going to get the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception."

The ball is in Jeanie Buss's court to retain Austin Reaves

The situation could get much more straightforward if Jeanie Buss steps on the matter and offers a contract that can satisfy both the franchise and the player, as she can easily retain him. Then, Austin Reaves could become one of the new faces of the team.