Austin Reaves Discussion: How Much Is He Worth?

Not a horrible idea, but alas, I doubt we see Lebron acquiesce to that scenario.

 

No, I would say the odds are better we don't get snow in Alaska this winter.

 

You get Putin next week ... anyone got a plan for the snatch and arrest?

 

Learnt a new word today - acquiesce.

“Reluctantly, LeBron James, the Senior, acquiesced to Toklat’s plans.”

 

I think if I’m being completely objective, if we have a healthy and durable Luka, Reaves is no longer untouchable. If he’s not healthy or durable, we’d miss the heck out of Reaves. But if not, it’s not inaccurate to say that potential 30+ mil could be spent on other great fitting pieces.

There is some skill overlap there. If Luka is playing 35+ minutes, are we taking full advantage of Reaves skill set? I think we find out better this year with the new pieces.

early returns seemed to indicate it might work, but this is a new team. Lebron will continues to to take a step back we think, but lots of new pieces to integrate.

 

i will repeat that luka's two best teams had brunson and irving on them--both score-first ballhandling playmakers. reaves is only superfluous right now because lebron is here. so for now, you wish reaves was young kcp. you won't wish that when lebron has left/retired. you will instead be trying to trade the entire non-luka roster for someone like austin reaves.

 

I don't know..Austin has to play better in the playoffs IMO. A lot is at stake, for a lot of guys this season. Outside of Luka, If we don't make a deep run, everybody's tenure here, is up in the air.

 

It all comes down to matchup resilience for Austin. We know he can put up really nice regular season numbers. That's great. But can he a reliable second scoring/creating option for 4 straight playoff rounds when opponents are more focused/physical and throwing tougher defenders at him? I just think it's going to be really hard for him to be that guy post-LeBron with his physical profile.

 

At low-mid 30M range he may remain 3rd option. Not out of realm of possibility Ayton stays also and is good enough to be 2nd option. And my guess is he too, if he does well here in a desired location for him …. may also take less than market value.

 

this. if he's paid 30, that means we have room for another guy at the same level. minny is paying randle, mcdaniels, and naz reid all around that number.

 

He can if he gets calls. It'll be tough if he doesn't.

There is positive correlation between his FTA and his pts obv, but also with his 3's. I assume it opens up more of his game when he is getting calls.

Past data shows reason for optimism in the future. When not playing with LeBron, his everything jumps, including his FTA, up to 6.7, which is top 10 itl.

 

I know it’s come up a few times, how well Austin performed as a 2nd option or 1st option when our stars were out. But I’m always hesitant to extrapolate data from a small data set… especially when it’s the regular season and teams haven’t planned exclusively for AR. In the playoffs we can also take data that Reaves has struggled with physicality - if he is the second option he’ll see more of that.

To summarize, I don’t think he’s as good as the data suggest as a 1st or 2nd option - because then he’d be a top 20-30 player in the NBA.

 

I guess we'll find out someday, but I think the same thing would happen with Austin that happened with Brunson, if given the role.