Getty Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves.
The Los Angeles Lakers have accumulated much young talent over recent years. Austin Reaves is one of the few valuable young players the team has.
There’s been speculation about the team trading for a star this offseason but that will likely take them losing Reaves. According to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, the Lakers won’t give up with guard easily. It’s going to take a lot for them to consider letting Reaves go.
“The Lakers, by all indications, are not trying to trade Austin Reaves unless it is an All-Star-level guy. … Even then, it seems like it’s a legit All-Star, not just a fringe All-Star type. They did not want to include him in a potential trade for Dejounte Murray at the deadline,” Buha said on the June 24 episode of “Buha’s Block.”
Reaves is coming off a career year where he averaged 15.9 points a game and 5.5 assists. The Lakers also seem to believe that there’s still untapped potential with the guard. He’s proven that he’s a good player so the team should only consider signing him if they can find a sure-fire upgrade. A player like Dejounte Murray would be a slight upgrade but it might not be worth it to give up Reaves and more assets to land him.
Austin Reaves Hyped About JJ Redick
One reason the Lakers may avoid trading Reaves is due to new head coach JJ Redick. He was also a guard when he was playing and could be very good for Reaves’ development. Also, Reaves is very excited about the prospect of playing for Redick.
“I’ve gotten to know JJ a little bit, going on his podcast during the middle of the year. He’s a basketball genius, I think, as everybody knows,” Reaves told CBS affiliate THV11 on June 22. “I think he’s gonna make a good coach, and I can’t wait to get to work with him.
“He actually texted me [Friday] and wanted to get on a call. So I just can’t wait to put our brains together, and go have a good year.”
I asked Lakers star and Arkansas native Austin Reaves about the hiring of new Lakers coach JJ Reddick. Reaves says Reddick is a basketball genius and he can’t wait to work with him. #LakeShow
Rob Pelinka Not Going to Force Trade
In the last couple of seasons, the Lakers haven’t tried to go after a third star to pair with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Ever since the Russell Westbrook trade, the team has preferred to build out the rest of the roster.
It sounds like that’s the plan for general manager Rob Pelinka again this year unless the right trade materializes.
“I do think, as I stated at the beginning, part of the road to a really, really good team, and you can look around the landscape of the league right now with many young teams doing really, really well, is going to be leaning hard into that player development piece,” Pelinka said during a June 24 press conference. “And of course, part of that is drafting the right way. We’ve had a great track record here of drafting good players and developing them. And we’re going to continue on that path as well. So that’s not a yes or a no. If the perfect trade comes along, we can use picks to make it and win a championship, yeah, we’ll do it. Is that trade going to be there? I don’t know. It’s harder in this system to find perfect trades.”