On Thursday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns will face off from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The Lakers lost their season opener in frustrating fashion to the Denver Nuggets, while Phoenix earned a narrow road win over the Golden State Warriors to open up its season.

Prior to the game, Suns head coach Frank Vogel spoke on what challenges the Lakers present, including a (very) interesting quote about Lakers guard Austin Reaves.

Vogel referred to Reaves as “a smaller and poor man’s Luka [Doncic],” per Mark Medina.

It's unclear what exactly Frank Vogel meant by this comparison. Yes, Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic both typically play at the guard spot and often take the ball-handling responsibilities that go along with that. However, outside of that extremely general similarity, the two players wouldn't seem to share much in common.

Doncic is one of the highest usage players in the NBA, establishing himself as a true offensive savant with the basketball during his five-plus years so far with the Dallas Mavericks. Meanwhile, Reaves has profiled as more of a role player thus far in his Lakers tenure, there to fill in the gaps around the two main stars in LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

In any case, Vogel isn't the only person who apparently thinks very highly of Reaves after his breakout campaign in 2023-24–the former Oklahoma Sooner was rewarded with a long-term contract to stay with the Lakers this past offseason.

The Suns and Lakers are slated to tip off at 10:00 PM ET.