Austin Reaves' emergence this season has been a blessing and a curse for the Los Angeles Lakers. The 24-year-old has been integral to the team's success this year, but at the same time, he's also played well enough to give the Lakers a potential problem with regard to his looming contract extension this coming offseason. With Reaves' current contract coming to an end this summer, reports suggest that LA is now in real danger of getting themselves priced out in the market.

If you ask former NBA player Matt Barnes, he believes that it's very much possible that Reaves decides to part ways with LA this offseason in order to secure a bigger bag with an opposing team. For Kevin Garnett, however, the Hall of Famer is adamant that this would be a stupid decision from Reaves:

“Reaves, yeah, Him. Mr. Him. He should get a nice contract. If I'm him, I wouldn't leave the Lakers,” Garnett said. “Even though he's gonna get some bigger offers. He's gonna go get some bread thrown at him.”

Barnes then chimed in to say that he's heard that Reaves intends to explore free agency with the objective of getting a bigger contract elsewhere:

“He already said it's not about the Lakers,” Barnes stated. “He's gonna get the money.”

KG didn't like it at all, and he did not hold back in criticizing Reaves for what he believes will be a grave error on his part:

“Aw, he's dumb,” Garnett said on Reaves potentially leaving the Lakers. “He's dumb, bro.”

The pair then argued how guys like Lance Stephenson, Victor Oladipo and Shawn Marion proved that sometimes, it's the situation that makes the man. All three players were balling before they decided to leave their respective teams via free agency, and for the most part, it just didn't work out for them the way that they had hoped. They still got paid, though.

According to Garnett and Barnes, it would be the same case for Austin Reaves if he decided to leave Hollywood. He's flourished under Darvin Ham's system, and KG and Barnes believe that Austin will find it hard to attain the same level of success elsewhere.