Austin Reaves Discussion: Overachiever Who Underachieved

The problem was D'Lo. He did nothing better than Reaves except maybe get hot shooting the ball sometimes.

Defense was atrocious, took the ball away from Reaves, and was unplayable in the playoffs.

D'Lo might be a better individual player than DFS but DFS changed how this team played. Even before getting Luka, the Lakers were starting to play really well.

I don't think Reaves and AD's game fit well together, either. Outside of being below the rim, AD wasn't a big offensive threat. Lobs, putbacks, and fouls but that's pretty much the bulk of his scoring. With Luka, everyone is getting wide open shots.

 

You can already guess which Laker made it (without looking to see who's thread you're in)

 

The article is muddled as it include rookie deals. Those will always have the highest value, which is a choice, I guess you can go with them, but then they don't include Wemby in there? Frankly not very insightful

 

love austin but don't think he's MIP. he's been knocking on the door and making incremental improvements. i don't really view this year as a leap.

you're about to ask me who leapt this year...and i need a minute to think about it (though cade obviously springs to mind, it's a bit lazy).

maybe okwongu in atlanta? does he have any buzz?

 

his teammate does, the one who the Pelicans drafted with our pick lol

 

the pick that we traded to get AD, a title, and then luka doncic?

hand me the tissue box?

 

I really liked Avidja but then last year I was calling on the Lakers to grab him so did he really improve all that much?
It's a tough award as some of these are fall into the category are they really better or are they just getting more playing time so their stats naturally go up from the volume?

I do think Reaves adding stepback and side step 3 is a significant improvement but then again he was torching Denver last year in the playoffs.

Tough call

 

I agree. Austin was brought into FIBA and you could see his trajectory growing even before that.

Austin's improvement has more to do with getting rid of D'Lo. All D'Lo did was take away Austin's possessions.

 

i think it was also that DFS came in the dlo trade, which made it possible to be a good defensive team. before, the team really struggled when dlo was out, even with austin, because there was no margin for error on offense due to the extant defensive issues.

but yeah, the greater point is that i think austin was this good last year.

 

I think Austin is a good call for MIP. Just have a look at the last few recipients:

- Tyrese Maxey
- Lauri Markkanen
- Ja Morant
- Julius Randle
- Brandon Ingram
- Pascal Siakam

None of them took a huge jump (apart from Siakam), they were all pretty good the season before. In general it's an award for someone who went from having nice potential to playing at an All Star level for that season. Usually, it involves around 4-5 point increase in scoring with maybe a bit more ball handling or a bit more rebounding if their a big and becoming a more important part of their team as a leader and contributor.

Not sure why Austin shouldn't be a candidate? He showed he can win games when Lebron is out. He righted the ship when AD was out before the trade and then again during the beginning of the trade and when Lebron was out. He has become one of the best third options this season. After being recognised as a good starter last year.

 

Austin improved from game one, but 0-6 from 3 is just rough. I think his game looks a lot better if he hits 2 of those shots, it would have been 22/5/5. Aside from that, he is trying hard defensively. A good improvement from game 1.

 

Yeah, competed on both ends quite well. Didn't fall for the fakes. The 3 ball was painful. He just kept trying to will it in early. I wish he started driving much earlier. You get a couple of those to fall, a trip or two to the line for rhythm and then maybe one or two of those 3s bounce your way.

We need him driving and not settling for series. Keep getting the big switched on him, especially when Luka is out, and let him get downhill.

 

Austin's here for it




I do wish he realized he was playing with 40 year old Bron and not 25 year old Bron. He's going to have him pull his back trying to catch the lobs he's trying to throw him..

 

Picked a bad time to get into a 3 point shooting slump just as Lebron jumper hasn't recovered s/p groin injury.
I get it this maybe the most difficult team in terms of athleticism, size, and length the Lakers will face but he's missing some wide open 3's along with the tough 3's he normally makes

 

I forget sometimes just how absurdly athletic he used to be. There's this idea that he's managed to stave off athletic decline better than anyone else, but I don't think that's actually true. He's declined a ton athletically from his peak, but his peak was so high that even after that he's still one of the best athletes in the league.

 

The stats look great but that's because everyone has inflated stats in today's game. It's the same with KD. Great numbers but the impact isn't there. A 2014 Kevin Durant leads that Suns team to the playoffs easily.

Where Bron shines is his IQ for the game. He's still athletic but he can only do it on occasion. If we had 2014 LeBron here... there wouldn't be a need for Luka. LeBron would be carrying everything no problem. I think people forget that if you brought peak LeBron in today's game, he'd be the best player in the NBA and it wouldn't be close.