There are many roads to becoming a mainstay in the NBA. The most common path is to be highly regarded coming out of college, get taken in the lottery, then live up to expectations and earn another contract. While many guys who don’t follow that path make up the bottom of the league’s 30 rosters, few of them rise above to become a star. Austin Reaves is the exception to the rule.
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The fifth-year Lakers shooting guard went undrafted in 2021, but he’s found a home in L.A. He’s improved by leaps and bounds every year, and it’s pretty inarguable at this point that he’s the second most important player on the Lakers behind MVP candidate Luka Doncic.
Reaves is averaging 23.5 points per game, the best number of his career. He’s also chipping in 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, and he’s a huge reason why the Lakers have jumped up to become the third-best team in the West behind the Thunder and Spurs.
On the most recent episode of Mind the Game, Reaves joined Steve Nash and his teammate LeBron James to talk shop, and at one point in their conversation, the topic of the 2021 draft came up. LeBron of course went No. 1 overall back in 2003, while Nash went 15th in 1996. Reaves never heard his name called, and the three of them debated why.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Reaves said when Nash asked why he wasn’t a first-round pick. “You know why,” LeBron laughed. “You know why. I know why. You know how that s*** is.”
Earlier in the episode, LeBron had spoken about how Reaves, despite an obvious lack of melanin, “didn’t play like a white boy.” “They look at him, the judge-a-book-by-its-cover situation,” LeBron explained. “I saw the talent. That guy that I’m seeing, there’s no way that guy goes undrafted. Come on, man,” he argued.
Reaves offered a more nuanced take on why he didn’t hear his name on draft night. “I think the draft, too, is you got your top 15 players, or whatever the lottery is, and then after that, I feel like teams just try to hit home runs,” he said. “And then my age, I was 22 I think coming out, so they’re like go young, go athletic, and I wasn’t either of that. But I could help somebody win.”
Reaves has definitely done that, but unlike star NFL wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, he hasn’t memorized every player taken before him. He just focuses on himself and his game, and that’s worked for him, as he’s in line to get a monster payday this offseason.
This will be one of the best chances yet for Reaves and LeBron to find playoff success together. They made the Western Conference Finals in 2023, but that team went just 43-39 in the regular season. This year’s Lakers already have 46 wins, and they still have 11 games to go.
The dynamic is much different this time around, as Anthony Davis is gone and Luka Doncic is in. Reaves has a much larger role, while LeBron has become more of a complementary player.
This could be the final year Reaves and LeBron have together, but with the bond they obviously share, you never know. It’s unlikely the Lakers let Reaves get away this offseason, so it will probably come down to LeBron and what he decides to do.
Will he take a pay cut and stay in L.A., or will he go to Cleveland or somewhere else to finish his career? Retirement doesn’t seem like an option just yet, but you never know.
Reaves’ NBA success should be a lesson for teams before they make their selections in this June’s draft. Don’t judge a book by its cover, and you may find a player who can really help you.
