Austin Reaves Discussion: Will He Stay Or Will He Go?

Yup, this one’s all on Austin.
He needs to score 30 every night AND be our defensive stopper- especially against everyone who way bigger than he is.
I saw him strip Gobert cleanly TWICE in the first half.
It would be a massive mistake to not keep Reaves.

 

Yeah we don’t give up on HIM, we surround this team with athleticism and shooting, we already have nice building blocks like Knecht on the bench

 

i don't think one bad series means you trade him. but i also don't think you can just wave hands at how much he's underperformed in this one. the stats don't actually look that bad, but if you're watching the games, you see he's just not making plays that he's been able to make at other times.

anyway, still of the mind that there are realistic ways to adjust the roster around our three best offensive players (luka, lebron, reaves).

rob's going to have to earn his money again this summer, though.

 

This series is the worst possible matchup for him out of the possible western conference opponents. Could spot that train wreck coming from a mile away.

I am curious as to where we meet on his next contract. Currently i think he's worth something in the mid 20s a year, I think they'll want something in the mid 30s. I also think the FO won't move him unless they're getting an elite return. They're too proud of their homegrown find and Jeanie loves him.

Roster construction will determine if he can be paired with Luka long term. If you have Claxton and a Herb Jones, one of Knicks forwards or someone in that ilk, he's fine. Next to Rui, DFS, and Bron when he's not on... the deficiencies become loud

 

Austin is going to have his struggles, against young, athletic guys in his age range. Especially off the dribble, his athleticism is pretty much at its peak right now, and it's not at the same level as a lot of these young guys in the West. That being said, you can run some sets for him, at least occasionally JJ damn it!..that could get him some cleaner looks.

He's a gamer with heart, I love that kid! However...I'm not sure that he's worth 30M, or if he's a real no 2 next to Luka, post Lebron.

 

maybe I'm being pessimistic but it doesn't look like we can win a title with those 3 guys being on the court at the same time through most of the games.

That's two offense-only (almost) guys plus Lebron, who can still play good defense but will be 41 next year.

we're always going to struggle with those 3 guys against teams like Minny who are mostly built with two-way players. We can't expect to outscore everyone.

 

Well..Luka is to a degree,"somewhat" similar to Tinkerbell defensively. This is a bit of problem, because we saw how that trio came up short. But damn...this is Luka friggin Doncic we are talking about!!

He's in a whole different universe than Tinkerbell offensively!!! We just need to tweak some things, and pray Lebron continues to be friggin amazing, just a little while longer

 

Regardless of the outcomes. AR need to build his strength this off-season. Teams will put bigger players on him and he need to be able to over come it.

 

this narrative is getting out of control, imo. if luka was as bad defensively as the talking heads say, his teams would never have had the level of success they've had. period.

he's not going to be your stopper or be dpoy, but the reason he's targeted is because the opposition knows if they beat him in iso, there's nobody back there to do a damn thing about it. in dallas, they fixed that and went to the finals.

 

Man we have eyes..anyone watching can see it..no...he's not as bad as Tinkerbell, but he's pretty weak on defense. That doesn't mean that he doesn't make some plays occasionally. Tinkerbell did too, but Luka is absolutely not considered to be a defensive challenge, by any player in the NBA. That's cool..he gets it back on the other end.

Teams can have success and even win a championship without all their players being "good" on defense. Even one of thier stars.

Teams target Luka because it's a successful tactic. He's not infallible on all fronts. Thats fine IMO...Can't have everything

 

No problem with your post but this below you would never acknowledge with what ALL of us were saying about all the things bad about Westbrook’s play here. Whether AD and LeBron were healthy or not.

Both situations were true … LeBron and AD absences and Russ’s crappy play.

 

Smh...You still just can't let that man live bro! He gone LT.

 

Thought he might be a legit third option. Looking more like one of those players who looks good during the regular season but disappears come playoff time.

 

My man AR had a really bad series.

Less golf this offseason and more weight room - he needs look more like Herro next season in terms of fitness to cope with what teams are doing to him attacking him on the big switches and crowding him on the dribble

 

Watching his interviews and seeing his soft arms....need to take some PEDs or something.

 

Dude kept falling on the floor… clearly too weak against stronger/physical guys. He was pretty much a no-show. Sad to see.

 

He got exposed as a non max player lol but still pretty good

 

A fan but looking like playoff eddie jones 2.0 (was also a big fan of eddie lol)

 

Also better conditioning. Dead legs with more minutes has been a real issue in his career. Especially when you have a whacky coach whose liable to play you 24 straight minutes