This offseason is all about the Los Angeles Lakers making the necessary moves to bring this franchise back to championship contention. This includes finding the right type of players to fit around the superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis and one player who has proven he is an excellent fit is Austin Reaves.
The versatile guard has shown that he can fit into any role the Lakers need as he can create as a primary ball-handler, but can also stretch the floor with his 3-point shooting. Additionally, Reaves took on a bigger defensive role this past season as well and his high IQ has made him an extremely trusted player by both LeBron and Davis.
With the Lakers eyeing some potential trades this summer, it makes sense that Reaves’ name would pop up as someone who might be dealt away. But according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Lakers would prefer to keep Reaves around going forward:
The Lakers would also prefer to keep Austin Reaves, according to team and league sources. They previously refrained from including him in trade talks for Murray at the 2024 trade deadline and Kyrie Irving at the 2023 trade deadline. Reaves’ playoff performances in 2023 and 2024 have affirmed his fit around James and Davis.
As was noted, Reaves has really made his name in the postseason, proving he can be trusted on the big stage. While his shooting numbers were down in the Lakers’ first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, he was the primary defender on Jamal Murray, who shot just 40% from the field and 29.4% from 3-point range. Even still, Reaves upped his scoring average in the playoffs, notching at least 19 points in the final three games.
The struggle for the Lakers, however, is that Reaves is the most attractive player the team can offer. Especially if they are eyeing another star it might be difficult to get a team to accept a package around Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent, even with the team being able to include multiple first-round picks.
The Lakers are determined to put together the right roster this offseason and the franchise clearly views Austin Reaves as part of it so unless there is a superstar coming back in return, the front office will do everything in their power to keep Reaves in purple and gold.
Taurean Prince believes Lakers need continuity after injury-plagued 2024 season
Considering all of the injuries that plagued the Lakers’ role players this season, there are some who believe the current roster isn’t too far off. One of those is forward Taurean Prince, who feels the Lakers struggled because of lack of continuity thanks to all of the injuries.
“The only thing I think necessarily went wrong was just the fact that we didn’t have a complete team throughout the whole season, Prince said in an interview with Lakers Nation. “Besides that, the camaraderie was there.
“We had the talent, but just having that cohesiveness was important and we weren’t able to sustain that I don’t think until the In-Season Tournament where we got a little dose of it. But other than that, we weren’t able to have a really full team, everything was really in and out, lineups changing throughout the whole season. So I think that’s the real only negative that I can think of.”
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