Austin Reaves Discussion: Overachiever Who Underachieved

We could see he was gassed but were hoping the 2nd or 3rd short mid range attempt after missing the first with his dead legs would go down for the dagger and HIM’s first 40 game.

 

Not bad for the 123rd highest paid player in the league

 

LOL

And if we add in Max...

Imagine where we would be without literally two of the best contracts in the NBA?

 

i was bored

 

Career HIM game. Think the most impressive one was the rainbow heat check 3 over DLO.

He's found his next cardio goal. If he doesn't lose his legs at the end, he wraps with 45. Not bad for the Hillbilly Mamba.



Similar info to the tweet @wcsoldier81 posted...



I think this is one of JJ's biggest achievements is entrusting and empowering Austin. They're close, you see Austin come up to him and put his arm around JJ in the first practice after JJ lost his house. Such a contrast to Austin's relationship with Ham. He hated Ham and Ham would've put him under the dog house if he could've.

 

I’m not the biggest fan of JJ, but he’s been sooooo much better at player development, time out management, lineups, challenges, dealing with the press, and more.
I may not like him personally, but so far, he’s been better than I thought he was going to be with plenty of room to grow.

 

HIs contract is basically having a NFL rookie contract on your books.
Come on Rob and Jeannie this is the time to go for a title. Really unique opportunity where you have 2 stars and a 3rd on a cheap deal.
Sigh this is going to be frustrating in a few years when Austin gets paid his right value and his timeline isn't going to match the future Lonzo, Randles who come in because the Lakers didn't want to trade their picks for some pie in the sky future.

Meanwhile the Clippers have the best arena in the league, benefits of being LA, and the no pressure environment for stars to come

 

Well, considering LeBron Isn’t going to play forever, especially at this level on offense for much longer, the rebuild is a Real upcoming event.
Also, if any player chooses the Flippers over the Lakers because they have a nicer arena, nicer toilets, and no pressure to win, he isn’t cut out to be a Laker.

 

Cut out to be a Lakers isn't going to be a big driver when in the first time ever the Lakers are going to have real competition in LA once Lebron retires
The Clippers are going to have the better arena, the better management, and the far far richer owner. Man City may not be living up their expectations this year but you see how the script flip between them and the classically great and far more prestigious Mancester United happened and nothing is written in stone.

The best hope for the Lakers is to get another star and the best way to do that is prove that you get your stars titles

 

I just feel completely different about the Lakers vs Flippers debate.
How many times have you heard a player that was traded here, or signed here who has been in the League already for some time say,”I never thought I would be able to play for The Premier Franchise in the NBA!”
No one ever has, nor ever will say that after becoming a Clipper.
Yes, some of the shine has worn off the brand, but there’s plenty left.
As for titles, last time I checked, LeBron chose to come here and won one.

 

Also, “Cut out to be a Laker” definitely does hold weight.
You can’t be weak minded, or just someone who likes to play basketball, to be a Laker Great.
We dodged TWO cannon balls with both Robotic Cornrows and George deciding to play it safe by signing with baby brother. Both are weak minded and couldn’t handle the pressure that comes with being a Laker.

 

Things change fast and I really don't think the Laker fanbase has their eyes open to what happening in the city or vibe shift. the Machester City vs United flip is a very real thing that could happen to the Lakers and it's a very similar situation (one historically great team literally one of the great franchises in all of sports gets it's a** handed to them by rich owners who aren't stupid). Clippers have helped refurbish almost every outdoor court I've played in LA with new backboards, the arena for all the crap here give Ballmer is freakin awesome and who is the Lebron out there who is going to come save the Lakers this time and if you reran that same scenario this time the future Lebron would probably go with the Clippers.

You see the formula: more money, better staff, willing to pay for the best talent and you get to be in LA as well.

 

You can come up with all these hypotheticals about future “stars” choosing the Flippers over us.
The fact remains: LeBron chose the Lakers.
Until someone big like Luka, or Antman dips for the Flippers instead of the Lakers and wins a Championship, there will be no real threat from baby brother.
You can worry about it, but that doesn’t make it real for the rest of us.

 

Anyone is free to disagree but again the argument is that we'll always be the Lakers doesn't hold for me because I saw how the Lakers became the Lakers.
I actually think of what the Lakers had with the great Jerry Buss and keep playing that through my head.
Buss was willing to spend far more then others (the 25 million contract to Magic was considered extraordinary at the time), he specifically ran with and built the Laker brand (the showtime 80's jacket still rock and put emphasis on stuff like the Laker girls to build that showtime brand) and had amazing talent at the GM position with West for so many years.

A tree doesn't continue to grow unless you water it and in this case you have a neighbor tree basically stealing from the same siphon using the same playbook. Ballmer is the one willing to put money back into the community, go for broke with a straight of the art arena, get the top management talent, etc.

Back to Austin his contract frankly is the biggest thing the Lakers have going for him. Use it like an NFL team does a rookie QB contracts and go for broke. That will keep the stars want to come LA pipeline coming because they trust the team will go for titles and the future Shaq's and Lebron will still believe

 

I am in total agreement with the fact that we no longer have good leadership, and haven’t since the torch was passed.
The only thing Ballmer has right now over the Lakers is money.
He doesn’t have the cache.
He doesn’t have the history.
He doesn’t have the world wide fan base.
He doesn’t have “stars” like LeBron choosing his Franchise over the Lakers.
If you have been following anything I’ve posted regarding the lack of good leadership, you would know that I would have preferred Jeanie and the rest of the family selling to a group with deep pockets.
I’ve never been cool with the nepotism hires and have always stated that Jeanie should have surrounded herself with the best Basketball minds- no matter what the cost. She should have learned this from her Dad, but she obviously didn’t.
It’s too bad that none of Jerry’s kids, so far, who have taken the reigns had any of the vision, daring, and charisma that the Great Dr. Possessed.

 

i get both sides here, but i think frontofjersey is maybe a bit too confident in the brand. it's been tarnished up quite a bit--and a lot of this has been intentional hatchet jobs from the press (that really appease most nba fans). but some of it is due to the problem we all acknowledge--poor management that starts at the top. it's been a clear downward trajectory since dr. buss passed, and the only fix will be selling the team to someone who will both spend big AND hire professionals.

again, the irony to me is that rob is the lightning rod, when i'd argue that he's the closest thing to an innovative external hire that we've made. so much so that the knicks basically copied us to revive their franchise.

anyway, i'd still prefer us to surround rob with a bunch of people plucked from the up and coming ranks of nba front office types. and i'd be ok with fully cleaning house, too. problem is still the ones cleaning are the busses, and they suck at staffing.

this is the reaves thread, though. shame we haven't been able to do much with what is probably the league's best non-rookie contract. it should give us a tremendous team-building advantage, but we squander it in other ways.

 

“Jerry’s Kids” reference FTW!

 

I was hoping someone would get a chuckle from this as I did after I typed it.

 

Fair enough.
Time will tell if we do get that next big “star” or two to push their way towards Lakerland.
Rob has been a mixed bag for me- he’s done some awful stuff(Westbrick trade), but also has done a decent job recovering from it.
One thing’s for sure, we do need better owners and smarter minds in the FO.