Austin Reaves is beginning to present his true colours in an LA Lakers jersey this season and is shortly turning into a reliable asset for JJ Redick.
The Lakers have had an inconsistent season however the staff look to have discovered their groove in current weeks and have improved to 26-19 within the Western Convention.
Antony Davis has performed a serious half within the staff’s current success however he has been dominated out by damage for a brief interval and coach Redick has known as for individuals to step up.
One star that has been doing that this season is Reaves, who not too long ago dropped a career-high 38 factors towards the Brooklyn Nets.
Reaves went undrafted within the 2021 NBA draft after declining to be chosen by the Detroit Pistons, he would ultimately go on to be picked up by the Lakers following the draft.
In his rookie season with the staff, he averaged 7.3 factors 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in a Lakers staff that did not qualify for the playoffs ending with a 33-49 document.
The debut NBA season was not precisely what Reaves had anticipated however since then his recreation capability has risen alongside the Lakers return to kind.
After realizing that the staff have been tanking in his rookie season Reaves admitted he had ‘one objective’ and it concerned one-upping the legendary LeBron James.
Talking on The Younger Man and the Three Podcast, he stated: “As soon as I discovered that we have been dangerous and weren’t going to make the playoffs I used to be like ‘I’m simply gonna beat him [LeBron James] to a recreation’ so I used to be making an attempt to determine what time I wanted to be there.
“Say it’s a 7:30 pm recreation I used to be like ‘I’ll get there at say 2:30/3 pm or no matter, I get there and I see his automotive and I’m like ‘s**t’, so subsequent recreation I get there at 1:30 pm and the closest I ever received was seeing him drive down the tunnel. After that I used to be like ‘I’m not attending to the sport this early anymore’ I used to be simply sitting again there bored as s**t, but it surely’s like he will get there does his routine each single recreation and like I stated he doesn’t miss, it’s very spectacular.”
Oppositions will pay attention to the hazard that each Davis and LeBron could cause on any given evening, however the pair have been screaming out for some assist for a while.
The D’Angelo Russell experiment didn’t go to plan and he has now been traded to the Brooklyn Nets, however Reaves appears just like the man who can play a strong supporting function.
Reaves’ minutes haven’t solely elevated year-on-year, exhibiting he’s a protected pair of arms on the court docket, however his stats have additionally continued to rise.
This 12 months Reaves is averaging 35 minutes of court docket time per recreation and has numbers sitting at 18-4-6, which is fairly robust contemplating AD and LeBron demand a lot of the ball.
AR15 not too long ago put himself amongst a few of the biggest names in Lakers historical past by ending 4 straight video games with at the very least 15 factors and 10 assists.
There isn’t a doubt that in a season the place the Lakers have chopped and altered their lineup to search out the suitable stability, Reaves is a mainstay.
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