It's hard to believe AR has been the best shotmaker on a team with Luka.
you ask Halflife he'll tell you Luka is the sole reason as to why Reaves is playing as well as he is.
Not the sole reason but an in insanely huge reason. The difference is night and day and even AR will tell you this. I don’t know the numbers before and after Luka but I’m sure it’s absurd.
It's hard to believe AR has been the best shotmaker on a team with Luka.
you ask Halflife he'll tell you Luka is the sole reason as to why Reaves is playing as well as he is.
Not the sole reason but an in insanely huge reason. The difference is night and day and even AR will tell you this. I don’t know the numbers before and after Luka but I’m sure it’s absurd.
I think if theres a difference it's because You've now got the two best defenders on Lebron and Luka so Reaves gets to pick apart whoever is on him.
But it's still Reaves being supremely skilled. It's not Luka feeding him easy points it's Reaves being great.
It's not Aaron Gordon and Jokic where he gets fed dunks on the regular because of the gravity of Jokic.
I think you put Reaves on a team where he's the main guy he'll average way better numbers across the board.
What Luka does impact night and day is the looks he's giving our roleplayers.
DFS Rui and everyone else are getting WIDE open looks every game. And it's because of how great Lukas vision is.
It's hard to believe AR has been the best shotmaker on a team with Luka.
you ask Halflife he'll tell you Luka is the sole reason as to why Reaves is playing as well as he is.
Not the sole reason but an in insanely huge reason. The difference is night and day and even AR will tell you this. I don’t know the numbers before and after Luka but I’m sure it’s absurd.
I think if theres a difference it's because You've now got the two best defenders on Lebron and Luka so Reaves gets to pick apart whoever is on him.
But it's still Reaves being supremely skilled. It's not Luka feeding him easy points it's Reaves being great.
It's not Aaron Gordon and Jokic where he gets fed dunks on the regular because of the gravity of Jokic.
I think you put Reaves on a team where he's the main guy he'll average way better numbers across the board.
What Luka does impact night and day is the looks he's giving our roleplayers.
DFS Rui and everyone else are getting WIDE open looks every game. And it's because of how great Lukas vision is.
That’s one way to look at it. I look at it like this: with AD and LeBron, Reaves was just the third guy. A good third guy but a third guy that a lot of people questioned at times. Now? Well damn I think he’s the 2nd best player on the team behind Luka.
AD demanded tons of attention too. It wasn’t impacting Reaves the same way. Luka is different.
It's hard to believe AR has been the best shotmaker on a team with Luka.
you ask Halflife he'll tell you Luka is the sole reason as to why Reaves is playing as well as he is.
Not the sole reason but an in insanely huge reason. The difference is night and day and even AR will tell you this. I don’t know the numbers before and after Luka but I’m sure it’s absurd.
I think if theres a difference it's because You've now got the two best defenders on Lebron and Luka so Reaves gets to pick apart whoever is on him.
But it's still Reaves being supremely skilled. It's not Luka feeding him easy points it's Reaves being great.
It's not Aaron Gordon and Jokic where he gets fed dunks on the regular because of the gravity of Jokic.
I think you put Reaves on a team where he's the main guy he'll average way better numbers across the board.
What Luka does impact night and day is the looks he's giving our roleplayers.
DFS Rui and everyone else are getting WIDE open looks every game. And it's because of how great Lukas vision is.
That’s one way to look at it. I look at it like this: with AD and LeBron, Reaves was just the third guy. A good third guy but a third guy that a lot of people questioned at times. Now? Well damn I think he’s the 2nd best player on the team behind Luka.
AD demanded tons of attention too. It wasn’t impacting Reaves the same way. Luka is different.
Reaves is fantastic but teams dont put their best defenders on him when you've got Lebron and Luka out there.
Reaves gets to pick apart whoever the third defender on that team is.
I never questioned Reaves. I think he's the best third option in the league that can be the first option at times when he's feeling it.
I dont know if he can be the #2 on a contending team yet. Will have to see when Lebron retires. Alternatively if Lebron completely drops off next season leaving Reaves to carry a bigger brunt of the offense for the entire season.
I honestly dont know if AD demanded a lot of attention. AD was dependant on others putting him in positions to succeed. His offensive game relied a lot on him getting his midrangers going.
He also had too many games where he basically was a no show on offense.
Hell of an effort tonight. Hopefully he has some gas left in the tank tomorrow. _________________ Nobody in the NBA can touch the Laker brand, which, like the uniform color, is pure gold.
A marker of how awesome Austin has become is that at a certain far point in the game last night, I was like, jeez, he's got hardly any points! And it turned out he already had 11. And I mean, 11 is by no means that many points, but it's gotten to the point than anything less than 20 and I just take it for granted.
Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 4839 Location: Lake Nacimiento
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2025 9:30 pm Post subject:
ksmgf wrote:
BEazy wrote:
AR is someone you need around your team for a very long time. He needs to be a Laker for life.
We all thought the same about Carugoat and they traded him anyway.
AR is on a completely different level, several levels really. He's not going anywhere unless it's part of a Superstar trade imo.
Ngl though, Gabe has been rock solid to end the Season for the most part but replacing him with Caruso would have been fun to watch with this group for sure.
I have been watching the NBA since the early 70's. I have seen some great players from the start to the finish of their careers. I want to make mention of greats like Pistol Pete Maravich, Bill Bradley, Jack Sikma, our own Jerry West, and a host of others I can name. There's a reason I named only a select group.
I saw the evolution of the game, and how the racial makeup had changed, just as it is doing so right now. All of that said, I am convinced beyond any doubt that the primary difficulty for all in accepting AR as the great player he is, was the fact he's white.
I acknowledge that my own biases were getting in the way of really appreciating this young man's talents. I can be biased at times, but I could never be prejudice in a racial sense because I have too much love for my white, Latino, and Asians folks. Uh, I'm a bit dark if you need to know about me.
Anyway, in summary I see folks a bit squeamish about the bag AR is inevitably going to get. I can't help but think that I a lot of that squeamishness is rooted in the lack of acceptance of how good he is. Could some of it, a small portion of it be rooted in biases? 20.2ppg and 5.8 assists for an entire season? And improving?
For me alone, I state this: if he's playing like this come negotiation time,
find a way to build the roster asap, then, don't F around come that time, pay him what guys like him are making!
Joined: 14 May 2010 Posts: 3612 Location: Worldwide
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2025 12:38 pm Post subject:
LakerDYnasty72 wrote:
I have been watching the NBA since the early 70's. I have seen some great players from the start to the finish of their careers. I want to make mention of greats like Pistol Pete Maravich, Bill Bradley, Jack Sikma, our own Jerry West, and a host of others I can name. There's a reason I named only a select group.
I saw the evolution of the game, and how the racial makeup had changed, just as it is doing so right now. All of that said, I am convinced beyond any doubt that the primary difficulty for all in accepting AR as the great player he is, was the fact he's white.
I acknowledge that my own biases were getting in the way of really appreciating this young man's talents. I can be biased at times, but I could never be prejudice in a racial sense because I have too much love for my white, Latino, and Asians folks. Uh, I'm a bit dark if you need to know about me.
Anyway, in summary I see folks a bit squeamish about the bag AR is inevitably going to get. I can't help but think that I a lot of that squeamishness is rooted in the lack of acceptance of how good he is. Could some of it, a small portion of it be rooted in biases? 20.2ppg and 5.8 assists for an entire season? And improving?
For me alone, I state this: if he's playing like this come negotiation time,
find a way to build the roster asap, then, don't F around come that time, pay him what guys like him are making!
He is this generation's Pistol Pete:
Quote:
I’m telling you people… Google Pistol Pete. That's him”
- James Worthy on Austin Reaves
Quote:
Austin Reaves:
“I feel like we can win a championship, to be honest with you.”
This is a championship level team with Luka and AR, period. _________________ The most important shot in basketball.
He's become a truly great player this season. Front office deserves credit for keeping him out of trade talks unless it was for a star, I thought that was absurd at the time. Then they still acquired a star without including AR. I would've been ok if he developed into a consistent 6th man but he has skied beyond that ceiling. _________________ It was reminiscent of one of those Most Interesting Man in the World advertisements: "I don't always shoot 6-for-28 from the field, but when I do, I become the youngest player in league history to score 28,000 career points."
Your statement about people like me is incomplete and not fully accurate. As an AR detractor in this thread, it would've been more accurate to describe my position as being this:
"Austin Reeves is likely not a #3 on a championship team."
The only thing that should matter is the rings if you are a Laker fan. That's how I evaluate anything related to this team, which is rather it increases our chances to win it all or not compared to a different scenario.
Austin's offense is fantastic, and has legitimately improved this season (especially with Luka on board to take some of the attention away from him on the court). I've never denigrated this aspect of his game, and would agree that it is "#3 quality" material for a championship team.
Where he has been a detriment to the Lakers over the years has been his defense. Skilled offensive squads have repeatedly and successfully hunted him down to score points. That last Golden State game we lost shows how that translates into trouble for us when our offense isn't nearly unstoppable. There were at least three times in the last few minutes of that close contest where different players got the 1 on 1 switch vs. Austin and they easily scored, and then it was game over.
The problem is not his defensive effort or even defensive BBiQ. He has shown to be athletically ungifted at containing his man who is even halfway decent. With that all said, I will also be fair by pointing out that over the past month or so, AR has clearly improved even with that. I've seen some plays, unlike before, where he will throw himself up in the air to challenge a shot with every bit of energy and focus that he can manage to effectively effect shots.
I've also seen Austin do a much better job at physically positioning himself down low vs. a bigger opponent and somehow hold his ground to make the post up a little tougher against him. I've also seen more instances when he successfully gambles to steal an incoming pass or strip a layup attempt. Maybe Luka gave him pointers since he does these things well already.
Sometimes his man still scored, sometimes they did not. Either way, I always appreciated it by thinking there was not much more that Austin could've done without help from a team mate. In the end, it's not impossible for us to win the championship right now, and AR's defense isn't the only weakness I'm nervous about (the lack of another, truly large defensive center for some potential playoff matchups has bothered me for years). I'll root for our team and hope Reeves can continue to be at least "ok" when he is hunted on defense as he has been more often than not lately. We'll see.
AR showed he was ready for the moment during those playoffs. _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
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