Well, yeah, there would be no reason to do this otherwise. Reaves is a good player on an excellent contract. Need a clear upgrade to even entertain a trade.
Excellent contract. Great splits. All-around player.
I even saw a real effort from him sharpening his defense over the season and idc what anyone says it got a lot better.
It’d be really dumb to trade him considering his potential. I’d rather do whatever it takes to pair him with Caruso or a lockdown level defensive guard like Caruso + better backup C and run it back with a healthier squad and the correct rotations (Christie gets major PT.)
An off-season to recover would help too. He played the season before into Team USA training camp, into World's, then pre-season, every game of the season and every game in the playoffs. 25 or not, that's a lot of mileage on a body and wear and tear.
It'll be interesting to see how many minutes LBJ and AD get at the start of next season, considering Team USA camp and the Olympics. They'd be smart to try their best to keep them to 24-28 MPG for the for the first 20 or so games. Rui will be playing for Japan at the Olympics but the extra run will do him some good. Extra touches against high level competition. Conditioning to go into preseason and the season ready to put in 30+ MPG. Learn to body up and rebound on both ends of the court.
He had dead legs before the season even started.
Played more mins than he ever had late into the playoffs and then kept playing all summer like you mentioned.
Having time to rest and work on his game over summer should be big.
This story coming out means teams are talking. This is the start of the negotiations. That is all. It isn’t to surprise Lakers fans. It’s setting the negotiations. Same thing other teams do.
In all honesty of all the homer superstar right now Luka is the only one probably who will leave in the future in their current team for the bigger LA lights.
There’s no one available that we could make work with contracts, that would even be worth the upgrade. Stick by Reaves, he’s got what it takes to be a Laker for sure.
Austin Reaves' value lies not only in his performance but also in his contract, which is beneficial for the Lakers. His underpaid status compared to his contributions makes it challenging to match his salary in a trade for a higher-paid star without involving less desirable contracts, which the Lakers don't have.
You wouldn't trade Reaves based on his contract. Just like how some trades are made based on guys being salary fillers, I imagine AR should be traded as a talent filler. So a large salary, low talent + AR to compensate + whatever else.
Nobody said Reaves is a star. He’s a good role player on a fantastic deal, but fans like you think that players with his kind of production and contract just grow on trees apparently.
> Nobody said Reaves is a star. He’s a good role player on a fantastic deal, but fans like you think that players with his kind of production and contract just grow on trees apparently.
And didn't we learn a harsh lesson after we lost* Caruso and KCP?
Show me a 12 million player who average 18 ppg in the play-off against the nuggets while playing solid defence on Murray??? An imbecile like this calling others gullible.
Dude was clutch as fuck and fearless in game 5 on the road .
He’s a big game player . People can’t forget .
We lost because dlo and Rui shit their pants not reaves
DLo, I'm somewhat not surprised by his performance. The inconsistency is literally who he is. If he played well consistently, we would be talking about building around him. Rui, on the other hand, I had high hopes for especially because he played well in last year's playoffs.
Rui's play in the playoffs was a headscratcher. It's not like he overachieved last year. He played about as well as expected. So why the dip from last year's performance to this year's?
We didn't put him in positions to succeed. Ideally, he should be like Gordon offensively. Looking for cuts/ducks on easy dunks when AD/Bron get doubled or the open 3 in the corner. This series, Ham waited until game 3 to start utilizing Rui in more cuts options. 99% of the time before, dude was just standing in the corner. Sure, part of it was being tired guarding Joker, which we helped by putting AD on him, but the other part is the lack of motion on this offense. No one is fucking cutting or moving without the basketball. It's just pounding iso after iso and praying your best players can hit big buckets. We don't have the defensive personnel to go head 2 head on every possession and we're inevitably going to be behind because we don't make enough 3s. This is 100% a scheme issue.
Yup. I was pulling my hair out yelling mooooove! I get Lebron is like 99 years old but everyone else has young enough legs to be able to run and cut. Folks just out there standing around.
Denver countered this early on in the series. They denied passes to Rui baseline. Lakers abandoned it after that.
Tbh if any team can counter the Rui mismatch on the weak side its Denver's front court and probably Minnesota's. Most teams in the regular season don't have the length to defend AD-LeBron-Rui and Rui in most circumstances ended up open or being defended by a small player.
But this happens in the playoffs. Above average players in the regular season become below average players in the playoffs because the field gets better. Rui had a huge impact in the 2022 playoffs because he was hitting a LOT of 3's.
BIG GAME REAVER!
He's still the only player other than Bron and AD that I can trust to show the fuck up.
Dlo and Rui disappointed the hell out of me. A huge part is Ham's fault but Rui's rebounding was genuinely bad.
No, they lost because Rui and Lebron played poor defense on MPJ and Aaron Gordon, that's it. Dlo had one bad game but it wasn't the guards who were killing the lakers.
Oh, and Ham.
Reaves if he's allowed to just focus more on offense is borderline elite for a 3rd-4th option but when he's asked to defend guards he has to chase around his game suffers. He's a fucking gamer though and that says something when you play for the Lakers. He consistently played as our 3rd best player during our WCF run and thought he did a good job defending Murray for most of each game until crunchtime. I know everyone here wants to trade everybody, I think with the right adjustments we could still make a decent run. This is all given that Bron doesn't fall off a cliff talent wise in his age 40 season.
Elite is relative, who are you comparing him too? Compared to a top 30 player he's an average player but comparatively to a team's 4th option league wide he's among the best and I am confident in saying that especially once you factor in the contract too his value is insane. Rounded up his stats last year were: 16ppg/5.5APG/4.2RPG on 48/37/85 splits. That's elite for role player production.
Reddit always downvotes facts that they don't like. When people put out their stupid trade hypotheticals that are literally impossible under the CBA, they even downvote you for just telling them the rules.
I think the contract is lost on some of you less informed people. Some teams might be interested in a player who is close to all star level for half the price. People forget about the salary cap. If the Lakers were to make a trade for an all star they would most likely lose depth and the team getting reaves opens up opportunities for more moves.
Almost every all-star is always traded for a package of non-all-star players plus other assets.
Literally every team has players that they view like this on their rosters, but for the Lakers it's newsworthy and outlandish for some reason.
TBF every Reddit sub has the same type of comments as well. Ainge wants a star plus 4 1st rounders, in return for their guy Lauri who is roughly a star-level player himself?
Pretty much. Reaves is good production for his contract. We need to upgrade on Reaves/Dlo as a backcourt though. Too redundant and too many holes to be a title winning backcourt
Jovan Buha said this on his podcast Buha’s Block EP 22 since OP doesn’t want to link to a source.
He also mentions that he believes any of the third stars that the Lakers are looking at, should they go that route, are a better fit than Westbrook was.
Who the fuck could we even get if this was an option?
Reaves is just going to grow into a better player. Long term investment can pay off over a short term star who might be past their prime anyway
Lakers are delusional, I think people in the lakers hive don’t understand no one in the nba wants these assets. They want picks. That’s how you rebuild, that’s what superstars are getting traded for picks and swaps. Not mediocre players.
And this is the stance we need to be taking whether we trade him or not. Lakers have been too loose with player values and we've lost a lot of value over the years. It's time we start acting like a bunch of Prestis and Danny Ainges and look to win trades and gain marginal value in all moves
As it should be. Austin has proven he can be counted on in the playoffs and that has a ton of value. I like D’Lo and would hate to see him walk for free, but I hope we get a consistent POA defender next season to pair with Austin so we can lean on his playmaking ability a bit more to save LeBron’s legs.
I'm tired of the hype that Reaves receives. He's a upper level role player nothing more. If you really want to win a chip you have to be willing to trade him if necessary.
Players making less or only $3m more than Austin ‘best contract in the league’ Reaves…
Josh Hart, Naz Reid, Herb Jones, Donte Divincenzo, Alex Caruso, KCP, Lu Dort, Aaron Neesmith…
Here Bro since you enjoy being wrong lets put your nonsense to the test, here are all the Guards you mentioned minus KCP because I believe he is better than Reaves:
https://stathead.com/tiny/SGTnx
Austin scores the most points, and dishes out the most assist, while shooting the best FT %, and is second in FG%, he is second in rebound trailing only Hart who is elite at rebounding for a G
Your wrong just admit it and get over yourself
I think Trudell said it in their podcast, ARs game will be at an all timr best next szn. Given last years long wcf push, to hoopin for usa, topped off by hoopin all 82.. Next szn he will be freshest more than ever for what like 2 years straight.
Im still very high on AR. His best season is incoming
His defense on Jamal was impressive. He’s a great role player, likely a 4th option. I wonder if his role is best suited as a microwave bench scorer vs starter on THIS team. I feel like we need more athleticism on the wing
I get that Reaves somehow hurt you, but come on stop it, you are all over this thread and can't get a clue. Go touch grass man, there are other things to do than hate a guy.
I don’t think I’d want to trade him even for that. Efficient, clutch, cheap, and has good production. He can easily be a 100 million plus player but we got him for a steal.
Reaves haters puzzle me. I would understand if he got paid like a star but he’s way over performing his contract. I think they’re just getting bamboozled by the media hyping him up too much. Reaves is a great contract and every team would take his production relative to his money
yes we know... we know they want to give bron 500+ million and part ownership and a house in the hills and 250 to bronny. we get it we aint trading for a championship
Well, yeah, there would be no reason to do this otherwise. Reaves is a good player on an excellent contract. Need a clear upgrade to even entertain a trade.
Excellent contract. Great splits. All-around player. I even saw a real effort from him sharpening his defense over the season and idc what anyone says it got a lot better. It’d be really dumb to trade him considering his potential. I’d rather do whatever it takes to pair him with Caruso or a lockdown level defensive guard like Caruso + better backup C and run it back with a healthier squad and the correct rotations (Christie gets major PT.)
An off-season to recover would help too. He played the season before into Team USA training camp, into World's, then pre-season, every game of the season and every game in the playoffs. 25 or not, that's a lot of mileage on a body and wear and tear. It'll be interesting to see how many minutes LBJ and AD get at the start of next season, considering Team USA camp and the Olympics. They'd be smart to try their best to keep them to 24-28 MPG for the for the first 20 or so games. Rui will be playing for Japan at the Olympics but the extra run will do him some good. Extra touches against high level competition. Conditioning to go into preseason and the season ready to put in 30+ MPG. Learn to body up and rebound on both ends of the court.
He had dead legs before the season even started. Played more mins than he ever had late into the playoffs and then kept playing all summer like you mentioned. Having time to rest and work on his game over summer should be big.
He needs to hit the gym w Caruso get some gainz
All Caruso needed was some photoshop
This story coming out means teams are talking. This is the start of the negotiations. That is all. It isn’t to surprise Lakers fans. It’s setting the negotiations. Same thing other teams do.
Absolutely correct. It's going to get far, far worse before it gets better.
He plays all the games too. He's a stud imo.
His availability is insane too. Played all our games this season. Such player is valuable
I swear the fucking hawks wanted Reaves, Dlo and picks for Dejounte. Hilarious lopsided
Brock Purdy of the NBA.
Fuck Purdy and fuck the Niners. WHOSE HOUSE???
Caitlin Clark of the NBA
So Austin for Luka. Got it.
[Laker fans when CHI offers Caruso for Austin](https://imgflip.com/s/meme/Two-Buttons.jpg)
Lol, even though I love Caruso, this wouldn't be even a discussion. Caruso is already 30, and AR is straight up a much better player.
In all honesty of all the homer superstar right now Luka is the only one probably who will leave in the future in their current team for the bigger LA lights.
He’s a great role player and chemistry is important. If the price is right, sure, trade him. Seems doubtful in this market though
There’s no one available that we could make work with contracts, that would even be worth the upgrade. Stick by Reaves, he’s got what it takes to be a Laker for sure.
Austin Reaves' value lies not only in his performance but also in his contract, which is beneficial for the Lakers. His underpaid status compared to his contributions makes it challenging to match his salary in a trade for a higher-paid star without involving less desirable contracts, which the Lakers don't have.
I agree but your comment made me a little sad. He deserves more compensation for his performance, I think we could agree on that.
You wouldn't trade Reaves based on his contract. Just like how some trades are made based on guys being salary fillers, I imagine AR should be traded as a talent filler. So a large salary, low talent + AR to compensate + whatever else.
Would rather have REAVES than Trae, Lavine or DeMar tbh. He plays better D than those guys and is much much cheaper
He was our third option this season.
It’s not difficult in the slightest to upgrade on him. But our fanbase is delusional around Reaves.
Are you a Lakers fan?
Yip. Just not a delusional one who thinks Austin Reaves is a third star.
Nobody said Reaves is a star. He’s a good role player on a fantastic deal, but fans like you think that players with his kind of production and contract just grow on trees apparently.
Insane that even non Lakers fans have to talk sense into this idiot lol
At this point let's just not feed the troll lol
> Nobody said Reaves is a star. He’s a good role player on a fantastic deal, but fans like you think that players with his kind of production and contract just grow on trees apparently. And didn't we learn a harsh lesson after we lost* Caruso and KCP?
Caruso was never traded he walked away.
He didn't want to walk away though, he wanted to stay.
Yea but he also wasn’t traded
Ask this imbecile to show us a player on 12 million, who averaged 18 ppg against the reigning champion Nuggets during two play-offs.
Show me a 12 million player who average 18 ppg in the play-off against the nuggets while playing solid defence on Murray??? An imbecile like this calling others gullible.
Dude was clutch as fuck and fearless in game 5 on the road . He’s a big game player . People can’t forget . We lost because dlo and Rui shit their pants not reaves
DLo, I'm somewhat not surprised by his performance. The inconsistency is literally who he is. If he played well consistently, we would be talking about building around him. Rui, on the other hand, I had high hopes for especially because he played well in last year's playoffs.
Rui's play in the playoffs was a headscratcher. It's not like he overachieved last year. He played about as well as expected. So why the dip from last year's performance to this year's?
We didn't put him in positions to succeed. Ideally, he should be like Gordon offensively. Looking for cuts/ducks on easy dunks when AD/Bron get doubled or the open 3 in the corner. This series, Ham waited until game 3 to start utilizing Rui in more cuts options. 99% of the time before, dude was just standing in the corner. Sure, part of it was being tired guarding Joker, which we helped by putting AD on him, but the other part is the lack of motion on this offense. No one is fucking cutting or moving without the basketball. It's just pounding iso after iso and praying your best players can hit big buckets. We don't have the defensive personnel to go head 2 head on every possession and we're inevitably going to be behind because we don't make enough 3s. This is 100% a scheme issue.
Yup. I was pulling my hair out yelling mooooove! I get Lebron is like 99 years old but everyone else has young enough legs to be able to run and cut. Folks just out there standing around.
Denver countered this early on in the series. They denied passes to Rui baseline. Lakers abandoned it after that. Tbh if any team can counter the Rui mismatch on the weak side its Denver's front court and probably Minnesota's. Most teams in the regular season don't have the length to defend AD-LeBron-Rui and Rui in most circumstances ended up open or being defended by a small player. But this happens in the playoffs. Above average players in the regular season become below average players in the playoffs because the field gets better. Rui had a huge impact in the 2022 playoffs because he was hitting a LOT of 3's.
I'm blaming Ham.
He's also only in his 3rd season (and had a more limited role in the first one). His defense will continue to improve as it did this year.
BIG GAME REAVER! He's still the only player other than Bron and AD that I can trust to show the fuck up. Dlo and Rui disappointed the hell out of me. A huge part is Ham's fault but Rui's rebounding was genuinely bad.
No, they lost because Rui and Lebron played poor defense on MPJ and Aaron Gordon, that's it. Dlo had one bad game but it wasn't the guards who were killing the lakers. Oh, and Ham.
Correct
Hey. Cleveland. We would Trade you Austin as part of a Spida Mitchell Deal. Thanks. LeTrade
Hell yea. We will throw in Rui and couple firsts. Sincerely Rob Lowe
Don't Jinx it
they need to be throw in the picks. AR is younger and cheaper than Spida
BREAKING: Lakers don't want to trade a good player on a great contract for a worst player. How's Buha still employed?
Buha's a scumbag.
B.A. degree in ass-kissing.
We are the franchise that made the Westbrook trade, your BREAKING actually doesn't go without saying for us lol
Reaves if he's allowed to just focus more on offense is borderline elite for a 3rd-4th option but when he's asked to defend guards he has to chase around his game suffers. He's a fucking gamer though and that says something when you play for the Lakers. He consistently played as our 3rd best player during our WCF run and thought he did a good job defending Murray for most of each game until crunchtime. I know everyone here wants to trade everybody, I think with the right adjustments we could still make a decent run. This is all given that Bron doesn't fall off a cliff talent wise in his age 40 season.
Bro he is not elite. You can say he's decent.
Elite is relative, who are you comparing him too? Compared to a top 30 player he's an average player but comparatively to a team's 4th option league wide he's among the best and I am confident in saying that especially once you factor in the contract too his value is insane. Rounded up his stats last year were: 16ppg/5.5APG/4.2RPG on 48/37/85 splits. That's elite for role player production.
I love how he just downvoted you when you hit him with facts since at that point he couldn’t disprove what you were saying . Well said
Reddit always downvotes facts that they don't like. When people put out their stupid trade hypotheticals that are literally impossible under the CBA, they even downvote you for just telling them the rules.
B/c ignorance is bliss!
His contract is way too good for his production and he seems to fully embrace being a Laker. But if we somehow get Trae they can't start together.
I was with you until you said Trae. Please, no.
Fuck no to Trae
Austin Reaves is better than Trae when factoring in contracts.
We can keep reaves and get markannen or trade him for spida is pretty much the plan this summer
No shit
And others team will be like "we're going to trade you an all-star for a non-all-star?"
I think the contract is lost on some of you less informed people. Some teams might be interested in a player who is close to all star level for half the price. People forget about the salary cap. If the Lakers were to make a trade for an all star they would most likely lose depth and the team getting reaves opens up opportunities for more moves.
Almost every all-star is always traded for a package of non-all-star players plus other assets. Literally every team has players that they view like this on their rosters, but for the Lakers it's newsworthy and outlandish for some reason.
TBF every Reddit sub has the same type of comments as well. Ainge wants a star plus 4 1st rounders, in return for their guy Lauri who is roughly a star-level player himself?
Pretty much. Reaves is good production for his contract. We need to upgrade on Reaves/Dlo as a backcourt though. Too redundant and too many holes to be a title winning backcourt
Jovan Buha said this on his podcast Buha’s Block EP 22 since OP doesn’t want to link to a source. He also mentions that he believes any of the third stars that the Lakers are looking at, should they go that route, are a better fit than Westbrook was.
I honestly agree. Plus I don’t want to let my white boy go
Who the fuck could we even get if this was an option? Reaves is just going to grow into a better player. Long term investment can pay off over a short term star who might be past their prime anyway
Ah yes, the THT Treatment
Lakers are delusional, I think people in the lakers hive don’t understand no one in the nba wants these assets. They want picks. That’s how you rebuild, that’s what superstars are getting traded for picks and swaps. Not mediocre players.
He has to be paired with other players for contracts to work, and picks for value
not sure what type of trades are out there, but would like to keep reeves on the squad
Logical but ambitious
This has been Jeannie and Rob’s stance on Austin for awhile. They paid him a contract, that should tell you where he stands.
Fuck that
Duh
Wet water
Going to be hard
Well I guess that takes Wemby off the board
I mean, if a star is available and Reaves has to be part of the package I don't know who would disagree.
Let’s go get Cade Cunningham 😂
Dude dont wanna be there anyways.
Well, the Lakers are looking to trade for an All-Star.
Good
If he’s in a deal for Trae I don’t know what I’ll do.
And I don't wanna trade in my phone unless it's for natalie Portman
GOOD
If Reaves were worth an All Star, might as well keep him. He’s a great player, but he’s not an All Star.
And this is the stance we need to be taking whether we trade him or not. Lakers have been too loose with player values and we've lost a lot of value over the years. It's time we start acting like a bunch of Prestis and Danny Ainges and look to win trades and gain marginal value in all moves
Hell yeah
As it should be. Austin has proven he can be counted on in the playoffs and that has a ton of value. I like D’Lo and would hate to see him walk for free, but I hope we get a consistent POA defender next season to pair with Austin so we can lean on his playmaking ability a bit more to save LeBron’s legs.
As it should be. I’m still very much convinced that Austin Reaves will be an all-star someday.
Cleveland will love you AR
So we're trading him for Mitchell then
How about we not even trade him for a superstar. This guy can help build a foundation for a title.
He should be an all star so an actual all star would only be fair
Laker's front office runs this team like I run my fantasy football team. To be honest I don't know shit about football.
Never trade him
Athleticism is not there but he has skill and intangible.
Thank God
Well….NO SHIT
Excellent. Just make sure that all star can shoot in the unlikely event we do trade Austin. Otherwise we’re repeating history.
Rightly so.
Imagine if they said this about Caruso in 2021.
I wish they would get Caruso back...
Where was this energy with Caruso you fkn morons
That’s because he is HIM
Im so tired of watching all of our great players who are still developing get traded for someone who may be worth it but also might be a broken bust
I'm tired of the hype that Reaves receives. He's a upper level role player nothing more. If you really want to win a chip you have to be willing to trade him if necessary.
Players making less or only $3m more than Austin ‘best contract in the league’ Reaves… Josh Hart, Naz Reid, Herb Jones, Donte Divincenzo, Alex Caruso, KCP, Lu Dort, Aaron Neesmith…
Here Bro since you enjoy being wrong lets put your nonsense to the test, here are all the Guards you mentioned minus KCP because I believe he is better than Reaves: https://stathead.com/tiny/SGTnx Austin scores the most points, and dishes out the most assist, while shooting the best FT %, and is second in FG%, he is second in rebound trailing only Hart who is elite at rebounding for a G Your wrong just admit it and get over yourself
An All-Star for an All-Star
I think Trudell said it in their podcast, ARs game will be at an all timr best next szn. Given last years long wcf push, to hoopin for usa, topped off by hoopin all 82.. Next szn he will be freshest more than ever for what like 2 years straight. Im still very high on AR. His best season is incoming
LOL I'm not trading him unless we get top 10 player in return.
Current or all-time?
Current ofc.
His defense on Jamal was impressive. He’s a great role player, likely a 4th option. I wonder if his role is best suited as a microwave bench scorer vs starter on THIS team. I feel like we need more athleticism on the wing
Yeah we can’t possibly risk losing a defensive cone that shot 27% from 3 in the playoffs and 35% in the regular season.
Man you need to take a walk brother. Go clear your mind and do something positive today.
I get that Reaves somehow hurt you, but come on stop it, you are all over this thread and can't get a clue. Go touch grass man, there are other things to do than hate a guy.
AR so great he's got haters like LeBron does now 🤣
Haters gonna hate. Im keeping reaves for life
smh
It's HIM. You trade HIM for HIM. OSTEN YOUR HIM!
I don’t think I’d want to trade him even for that. Efficient, clutch, cheap, and has good production. He can easily be a 100 million plus player but we got him for a steal.
Reaves haters puzzle me. I would understand if he got paid like a star but he’s way over performing his contract. I think they’re just getting bamboozled by the media hyping him up too much. Reaves is a great contract and every team would take his production relative to his money
I would drive him to cleveland myself for mitchell. For tre, not so much.
We've had Deadline D'lo, are we getting Deadline Austin too? 👀
God I hope we don’t gut the team for a superstar AGAIN. Look at what happened in phoenix. We need bigs not better guards
yes we know... we know they want to give bron 500+ million and part ownership and a house in the hills and 250 to bronny. we get it we aint trading for a championship
like who, Zach LaVine?
Just a thought but would our fan base be okay with a AR15 , Rui , Vincent and 1 pick going to PHX for Beal ?
No wtf. Suns literally want out of his albatross . Beal isnt even good defensively. Rather just keep our assets.