Austin Reaves in his second season has taken a huge jump, and that’s not to say that his rookie year wasn’t already really good, especially considering the circumstances.
Austin Reaves was expected to be a second round talent but requested not to be drafted because he wanted to sign with the Lakers in undrafted free agency, and that has obviously paid off if you’re the Los Angeles Lakers over his last 10 games. Austin Reaves has been playing phenomenal basketball and throughout the entirety of the Season he has shown an amount of poise that is really impressive for a second year player he’s been shooting the ball really well he’s nearly at 50 40 90 on the season which is incredible.
What I really like in these last 10 games is his ability to get to the free throw line he’s been shooting almost four and a half free throws per game in the last 10 games, and he’s shown the Poise as a play maker to only turn the ball all over 1.3 times per game over the last 10 games that’s a low amount of turnovers considering he does have the ball in his hands quite a bit, and he’s a second year player and I want to go back to when the Lakers could have had an opportunity to go out and trade for Kyrie Irving, and they didn’t do it at the time I was wondering well what’s next for the Lakers how are they going to move forward.
Because they had these two young players and Austin Reaves and Max Christie who could have value to other teams, and they could potentially use in trades Ultimately, they decided to hold on to both of those guys, and then they made the move for D’Angelo Russell. Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley they also went out and added Mo Bamba, and they traded for Devon Reed and got some second round picks from the Denver Nuggets and then you end up with this core on your team that actually has a really sneaky amount of depth and also has provided you with a lot of wins lately the Lakers are on a three-game win streak and are also seven and three since the trade a deadline they’re 33 and 34 rights now, and they’re looking to turn the season around keep in mind they have gone on this three-game win streak without LeBron James in the lineup and I have to say I think Austin Reaves has been a major contributor in that he’s had some games where he’s near 20 points, yet he still stayed very efficient from the field.
I think he has taken a huge leap even just in this season his play has improved significantly and if this is a sign of where the trajectory of his career is going he has a ton of potential and a lot of room to improve as a year two players I’m hoping the Lakers will be able to bring him back in free agency this off-season because he has been amazing this year of course you do have to consider that I’m sure other teams are seeing what Reaves is doing especially young teams look at teams like the Rockets the Spurs the Pistons who could all have some cap space this off-season you might want to watch out for those teams if you’re the Lakers.