Coming into this season, the Los Angeles Lakers have a lot of expectations following their run to the Western Conference Finals last season. But on an individual level, perhaps no player on the team has more pressure on him than Austin Reaves.
The third-year guard exploded down the stretch of last season and into the playoffs. He was rewarded with a new contract this offseason, had an excellent showing with Team USA in the FIBA World Cup, and many are now viewing him as the Lakers’ third star with some believing an All-Star selection is possible.
Reaves recently appeared on the Lowe Post Podcast with ESPN’s Zach Lowe and spoke about his expectations for the upcoming season and made it clear that a championship is far and away the most important thing before noting that he feels he can still do more than what he showed last season:
“First of all, I just want to win a championship […] For me, that’s number 1 and that’ll always be number 1. But personally, I don’t ever like really setting goals just because you can not achieve your goals, but also do what’s necessary for the team and you’re sitting there looking like ahh I averaged 14 instead of 17 or 18 or whatever your goal might be.
“But for me it’s really just about playing the game the right way and I feel like it’s really worked from day one for me. I keep getting a little more opportunity to do more and I feel like going into this season it’s gonna be even more of that. Me and Darvin [Ham] have talked about that multiple times about just having more responsibility and being on the ball a little more, and creating for others. Yea I think I can do what I did last year and more.”
This has been what many have spoken about during the offseason when it comes to Reaves. The belief is that he will take on more of the playmaking duties and be on the ball more and he has said that he wants to play more point guard this season. It is a lot of responsibility, but it feels like he is capable of handling it.
The fact that he has been in constant communication with head coach Darvin Ham about this means that he knows what to expect and is ready for everything that comes his way. If he can take another leap this season, the Lakers will be that much closer to accomplishing that championship goal.
Austin Reaves reveals LeBron James’ annual minicamp with Lakers already took place
The Lakers as a whole are locked into that goal of winning another ring and the team is ready to hit the ground running. In fact, Reaves revealed that LeBron James’ annual minicamp with the team already took place last weekend.
Reaves said that everyone on the roster went down to San Diego and the Lakers got in a lot of good foundational work prior to the start of training camp which begins next week.
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