Austin Reaves Discussion: How Much Is He Worth?

Could be that his calf is still not 100%, but probably a mix of a whole lot of issues like loss of explosiveness due to conditioning, uncertainty of role on team, lack of offensive rhythm, and mental slump following his injury. Not really worried. I'm willing to bet he'd be back to scoring 25+ if LeBron takes a few games off.

 

And when Luka’s dinged a game after his next T.

 

Called it, 25 put game without LeBron.

 

Sucks.
Overrated.
Trade him.
There, did I do it right?

 

Much, much better.

 

As long as LeBron is here we aren’t doing s*** unless his old arse defers completely to the two best players on the team

 

Terrible 1st half but man, ridiculous shot-making in that 2nd half. Him and Luka beat the Wolves in that 3rd Q.

 

Lakers are 26-13 with Austin , 14-12 without him ..

 

In other words, we are a 3/4 seed in the west with Luka, Reaves and a bunch of scrubs. Replace the scrubs with better pieces and we are a contender. This isn't rocket science.

 

Btw there are only 2 perimeter players that score over 23 pts with a TS% of 65+

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Austin Reaves

Take that down to 23 pts and a TS% of 60+ and you get

Stephen Curry
Kevin Durant
Kawhi Leonard
Donovan Mitchell
Luka Doncic
Keyonte George
James Harden

So he's in the 99th percentile as a scorer. And that's not including his value as a playmaker.
There's been talk of Laker fans overrating AR, but really, he's vastly underrated.

 

i'm told this isn't true, regularly.

 

lebron offering to come off the bench is the way, imo. he won't do it, and jj won't suggest it, but it's how to salvage a chance at contention this year (small chance in any case). but lebron would have to be bought into the idea, else he'll pout. and he DOES pout.

so yeah, i'm dubious. it's time for a break up, which is clearly imminent. both sides will benefit, imo.

 

Let LeBaby start, but play off ball.
This is the way.

 

Lebron's stature is too great for anyone to convince him to play any other way. It's similar to how Kobe played in his last season, but much worse because we aren't in rebuild mode. I think it would be a bit more bearable if Lebron announced his retirement and we were on a farewell tour. At least that wouldn't make our struggles a lost cause.

As it stands we'll just have to ride this season out.