The Los Angeles Lakers haven't exactly set the world on fire to begin the 2023-24 season, falling a bit short of expectations after ending last season on a high. A part of this underperformance has been their poor starts to games, falling behind routinely and needing to mount comeback after comeback, necessitating herculean efforts from LeBron James and Anthony Davis on a nightly basis.

One of the adjustments the Lakers coaching staff had made is to bring Austin Reaves, the team's breakout guard last year, off the bench to give the team more firepower whenever James sits, while giving the team more two-way presence in the starting lineup with the insertion of Cam Reddish. Even with James out during the Lakers' Sunday night victory over the depleted Portland Trail Blazers, Reaves was still the team's sixth man, and that appears to be his role on the team for the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, Reaves is taking the “demotion” to the Lakers bench in stride, as he just wants to do whatever he can to help the team win.

“Basketball is basketball for me… trying to play the same way regardless of situation. That's really it. I feel like my family, especially my brother, did a really good job of teaching me at a young age how to play the game,” Reaves said in his postgame presser, per Michael Corvo, ClutchPoints Lakers beat reporter. “That's really the main thing, just being myself, trusting what I do, but at the same time just playing the right way.”

This is certainly a good mindset to have for Austin Reaves, especially when he hasn't been able to carry over his level of play from last season to begin this year. Moreover, it's not like Reaves has, all of a sudden, become an outcast in this Lakers squad. The team still relies on him often to generate offense, and they still trust him enough for him to earn the role of chief shot-creator and playmaker off the pine.

Reaves is also closing out games for the Lakers, even doing so over starting point guard D'Angelo Russell on Sunday night. And the Lakers have won the two games in which he has become their sixth man, so thus far, this move has done wonders for the Purple and Gold.