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LOS ANGELES – With the Los Angeles Lakers heading into the NBA Playoffs, much has been made of Austin Reaves forming a ‘Big 3’ alongside LeBron James and Luka Doncic. Since the Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell, Reaves was slotted in as the point guard of the future and has seen his numbers take a huge leap. Following Lakers’ practice on Tuesday, head coach JJ Redick likened the Austin Reaves experience to former NBA legend ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich.
“You got to allow the Pistol Pete s**t to some degree because it’s what makes him Austin. Trying to find that balance,” Redick said.
During the past two seasons, Austin Reaves’ role hasn’t always been clearly defined. He alternated between the starting lineup and coming off the bench under former head coach Darvin Ham. But under JJ Redick, Reaves’ role with the Lakers had been abundantly clear.
“The first real challenge was just the sort of post-Dorian [Finney-Smith] trade and him becoming the primary handler and the responsibility that comes with that just in terms of decision-making and trying to find that balance,” Redick said.
Reaves has had quite a few big games this season, with some of the most notable being the Lakers’ win against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, and their win against the Indiana Pacers back in February with both James and Doncic out.
Against the Warriors, Reaves put up a triple double with 25 points, ten rebounds and ten assists. It was only the third triple double of his career. Then on Feb. 8 against the Pacers, with both James and Doncic sidelined, Reaves exploded for a career-high 45 points.
During the regular season, Reaves appeared in 73 games for the Lakers, at a little over 34 minutes per game. He averaged 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.1 steals with splits of 46 percent shooting from the field, 37.7 percent shooting from the three-point line and 87.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
In terms of the Lakers’ main three of James, Doncic and Reaves, Redick admitted that the challenge of getting all three in sync is atypical when it comes to getting star player to form consistent chemistry.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that you three are all working together. Sometimes two can go work on the side, you can work over there,” Redick said. “That, to me is how you play three-man basketball with three guys that are in some ways ball dominant, in some ways great shooters and none of them are bigs. . .you’ve got to figure it out in a different way.”
“I think as we’ve progressed over the last few weeks, I think we’ve made progress but we still have a long way to go,” Redick continued. “But we’ve made progress.”
