Austin Reaves Discussion: Overachiever Who Underachieved

He missed 2 3s to take the lead

Agree he's rounding into form just when AD gets injured lol. Rough start to the year for the Lamers

 

I understand the 2 misses but the last play, they needed to include AR in the action at least

 

Probably got tired. I don't remember him or Lebron coming out of the game past the midway point of the 3rd quarter. They definitely played the entire fourth.

 

nearly getting a triple double is pretty cool

 

His scoring and confidence shooting the ball seems to be back, thankfully.

Even though he flirted with the triple double, the handling, passing, and decision making isn't where it was 6 months ago. And it's not the defense, historically bad defenders are giving him problems -- Herro, Hyland, Vezenkov. He's got to clean it up.

 

the good news: he's returning to form
the bad news: he's (still) not a pg

 

SMDH

 

Well said.

 

I'm leaning to more @abeer3 here on this one. Lebron is one of the greatest passers/playmaking players in NBA history - GOAT conversation gets hairy but I'm pretty sure Lebron is best combination of scorer plus passer ever. But he ain't a PG.

You can see it with the Lakers this year vs the Lakers last year: Reaves is a better passer than Schroeder but losing a traditional point has clearly hurt the Lakers. You see Reaves making a lot of ballhandling and passing errors where he has to bring the ball up. Losing a guy who can break a press and beat POA defense with ballhandling full-court or initiate the offense in half-court has been lacking.

So what I'm getting at is I like Reaves as a playmaker and it's not selling him short not to call him a PG. It's actually important to pair him with a PG and it will actually make his playmaking better

 

I don't think both things are the same.
Reaves can definitely handle the ball and dish. He should easily average 5ast a game throughout his career. He's still not the PG

I don't think he's comfortable bringing the ball up, calling plays and playing through traffic orchestrating the offense over long stretches. He's more a guy who gets the ball to attack the basket. When he does that, he's capable of getting space for his mid range, go all the way or find the open guy when help comes.

Being a PG means seeing the court differently, setting your guys in the right positions, dribbling the ball until the right moment and playing through screens not to attack the basket but to manipulate the defense into doing what you want. I don't think Reaves has those skills. But he's super comfortable in attacking the basket and occasionally bring it up and I'm fine with that.

 

He’s only said he’s played PG all his life and likes it. I’d imagine he’ll keep working on his handles and whatever else the naysayers are talking about, and rightfully so, for doing it at this level. To the max he’s capable physically. Maybe back away from the “ceilings” just because he’s had a rough start in those areas so far this season.

 

The thing that most overlook is that there is an adjustment period for any position change. IMO Austin showed last year he can run the point. I certainly understand others not thinking so. To think he is just going to seamlessly step in and run this clusterf is asking alot of anyone. But he will get there given the chance.

 

well, it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but pioneer and pika gave the long version. my main point is you can't run him opposite another team's pg, without another ballhandler on our side, and expect good results. so lineups with that theory in mind should be shelved. how that gets translated as he can't make plays or isn't good is beyond me. as pioneer said, you can't put lebron in that position either. even if he (like austin) believes you can.

 

I don't think MANY teams in the NBA run a single ballhandler anymore ... probably in the last 15 years. So this doesn't say much, since it's true for literally every single ballhandler out there.

Let's see.... these people share ballhandling duties on NBA teams, correct me as I certainly don't want all these teams that close. Some of them are backups and I am not sure how much they play together in some cases, but... single Magic or Kidd PG of the yesteryear doesn't exist and hasn't for some time.

Holiday + White + Tatum/Brown
Edwards + Conley + SloMo
Maxey + ?
Murray + Jokic + Jackson
Young + Murray
Brunson + Randle + DiVincenzo
Doncic + Irving
Westbrook (LOL) + Harden (I guess) + Powell?
Curry + Paul (although they sent him to the bench) + Draymond
Dennis + Barnes?

...

We miss Dennis's defense. His breaking the defense was useless, because he is an awful facilitator. So... you say we need another ballhandler to bring the ball up court under full pressure and then pass to AR to handle in the half-court?

That seems kinda specific, especially since there are not many teams that consistently full-court-pressure.

AR errors this year are an outlier and it will get better as he is trusted with the PG duties more and more.

 

yes. though i also agree that his p&r choices haven't been stellar early, either.

because teams don't play reaves types at pg. nobody will ball pressure irving (or doncic, tbh), maxey, conley, murray, jackson, brunson, young, curry, paul schroder, westbrook (!), or holiday. at least not without giving up 5 on 4s.

possibly, but right now it's happening exactly as i suggested when we were arguing about it a while back.

 

Wasn't that way throughout the playoffs, wouldn't you say?

 

guess i didn't think we used him as a primary pg in the playoffs? and yes, his pick and roll play as the ballhandler was sharper in the playoffs for whatever reason.

 

The dysfunction and lack of effort of our team along with the lack of vision and direction shown by Ham is pretty hard to pin on Austin or any one player. It does make it easy to point fingers and take victory laps but not sure that is accurate. The issues with this team right now need to be seen through a wide lens.