Austin Reaves Discussion: Foundation Piece Or Trade Piece?

Well, who does that in yout lineups? Russ? I am guessing it's Beverly. Same here. AR slides to 2.

As for Ingles -- check how much of the time did he bring the ball up. And this goes all the way back to his Maccabi Tel Aviv days.

And also, in the same manner, AR is going, in that setup, share the floor with Bron.

It doesn't matter if Bron plays the Conley role or what, but he is going to handle the ball most of the time, thus negating the whole "AR can't handle under pressure" to a moot point.

P.S.

Also, in your lineups, who's doing anything but standing at 3 point line? Can't have it both ways.

Either you prioritize defense (without going into whether Pat is really a better defender, in the grand scheme of things than AR) and then have Bron doing all or you insert a much much much better offensive player and facilitator in AR and live with mistakes on D.

I don't think he is as bad on D as Beverly is on O, so my choice is clear.

 

Depends on the matchup: Reaves on less offensively gifted PG such as Smart or bigger guys like Murray would be fine. For the others you probably play Beverly
Overall if I trusted Nunn more in crunch time: the Nunn/Reaves backcourt makes a lot of sense

 

Nunn, Reaves, Bev, Gabriel, Bryant or Jones would be my 2nd unit.

Lebron, AD, Russ, Dennis, Jones or Bryant would be my starters. I like Nunn as a scorer for the 2nd unit. It's not that he isn't starter caliber. He should get 30 min a game playing with either unit.

Spot/situation duty for JTA, Brown/Walker. Some games they might get more burn than the 3 bigs, some games they won't. That's a 13 man rotation to start the season. Let it work itself out as we go along.

It would depend on the matchups who fits best with AD at 5. We will figure it out as the season progresses..I like bigs on the floor as much as possible.

 

I don't mind Reaves/Beverly or Reaves/Nunn to close. As far as starters go I want Reaves and Lebron to have as many minutes together as possible. I also like the idea of Nunn as that scorer off the bench. That sixth man of the year candidate that can get you 15-20 but he may earn the starting spot. Coach Ham has his hands full.

 

switching gears--we haven't gotten much of a chance to see austin's catch and shoot three in the preseason. teams have been closing hard on him (not sure why, given history), and he's been doing a good job attacking those. but someone's going to challenge him to take the shot eventually, and the rubber's going to hit the road.

 

Darvin seems more comfortable with AR initiating the offense than some peeps here, from whatever position it happens. He’s going to continue to grow in those skills the more chances he gets.

 

Perfectly executed Smithee? or Jordanesque

 

another future HOF'er draft pick by the Laker scout team. Just schooled an all time great and made it look like child's play.

 

Hillbilly Jordan

 

Well, what do you know... Quite a lot on the PG or not PG debate.

 

Yeah I commented after the game that Ham apparently sees him facilitating from wherever .... the point or off point more than some peeps here. He's doing great with his good passing and smarts. Will have to check this clip out.

 

i didn't see him handling against pressure in the open court last game, which is the right call.

 

Stremfph

 

He needs to play more than 16 mins with the right unit

 

He played mostly without Russ and was in the best lineups.
He got cooked too often in back cuts from Curry and Poole

 

Twice or so; wasn't the end of the world. Draymond nailed a couple passes.

He needs to play more, period. And if I had a dime everytime I seen Curry best somebody off ball....

 

he doesn't have the footspeed to cover curry (i thought lonnie did a pretty good job staying near curry, tbh), so that was on the coach, imo. the fact that he trusted reaves with that assignment speaks volumes, though.

you have to believe he's going to eat beverley's minutes as the season progresses.

 

He needs to start: his strength is as a connector piece - he's good at a lot of the little things that helps guys like AD/Lebron but gets wasted if he's one of the guys expected to break down a defense.

He can attack a closeout well, good passer off the dribble, good at getting lose boards, reasonable threat from 3, decent defender etc. etc.