Luka Doncic’s MVP turn and an improved team defensive effort have gotten most of the press for the nine-game winning streak that has propelled the Lakers to third place in the West, but Austin Reaves and LeBron James deserve a ton of credit, too.
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Reaves has been a picture of efficiency as he’s become arguably the best second scoring option in the league. LeBron has embraced a more complementary role, diving for loose balls and doing whatever the team needs.
Reaves was a guest on the most recent episode of LeBron’s Mind the Game podcast, and when his cohost Steve Nash asked the 4-time NBA champion about the first time he saw Reaves play, LeBron gave a hilarious answer.
“I had never seen him play up until the point we signed him,” LeBron said. “I went back and watched a lot of his Wichita State highlights and games, and a lot of his Oklahoma highlights and games, as well. The first thing I noticed, it’s kind of funny, we always talk about this — he didn’t play like a white boy. It was very different. His wiggle was very different,” he added.
LeBron then went on to what he meant by his white boy comment. “I grew up in Northeast Ohio so I know,” LeBron said.
“White guys playing like white guys and white guys playing like the brothers. And what I could see in his game was that he had a lot of wiggle to his game, and that was one of the things that, quite frankly, we were missing. We didn’t have. I thought that his game would translate to us, his ability to crack the seams and his ability to get into the paint,” he tried to explain.
LeBron has infamously claimed prescience before, including allegedly predicting Kobe’s 81-point game and being in on the rap group Migos before they even existed, so we have to take his words on Reaves with a grain of salt. Still, he has seemed to embrace the shooting guard since he entered the league, and the Lakers have been better for it.
The Lakers signed Reaves as an undrafted free agent out of college, and they’ve been handsomely rewarded for doing so. Reaves improved his scoring average every year in school, and his average of 7.3 points per game as an NBA rookie has continued to improve drastically as well.
Reaves is playing his way to a possible max contract this offseason, which would make him just the second undrafted free agent to receive one, after fellow former Wichita State Shocker Fred VanVleet. He’s certainly earned it by the way he’s played, as even with Luka’s brilliance, the Lakers couldn’t hope to be anywhere near their 46-26 record without him.
LeBron is right about Reaves’ game. Stereotypical or not, when most people think of the way white guys play basketball, they picture someone like Duncan Robinson spotting up on the 3-point line or a center like Walker Kessler or Donovan Clingan swatting shots in the paint. Reaves’ game is more athletic, and he’s deepened his offensive bag with every passing season.
Until their recent winning streak, most observers have viewed the Lakers with a skeptical eye when it comes to whether they’re true contenders or not. It will be a tall order to challenge the Thunder or Spurs for the Western Conference title, but thanks in part to Reaves’ wiggle and LeBron’s new lease on life, getting out of the first round for the first time in three years should be the bare minimum expectation.
