Lakers' Austin Reaves 'One of the Better Young Guys' in NBA, Warriors' Kerr Says
The hype train for Austin Reaves' third NBA season is stronger than ever.
The budding Los Angeles Lakers' guard has had quite the offseason coming off a breakout campaign last year in which he was an integral piece in the franchise making it back to the Western Conference Finals.
He later joined Team USA for the FIBA World Cup where he played under four-time NBA champion coach Steve Kerr, who has nothing but praise for Reaves with the 2023-24 season on the horizon.
"Way better to coach him than coach against him," Kerr said of Reaves Saturday. "I loved coaching him. … He's really emerging as one of the better young guys in the league."
During that World Cup run that ended with a disappointing semifinal defeat to Germany, Reaves was solid on both ends of the court for the Americans. He averaged 13.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 steals and shot 57 percent from the field.
He led all bench players in scoring.
In addition to his international accolades, Reaves also earned himself a nice pay raise with the Lakers, signing a new four-year contract worth $54 million as a restricted free agent. Not bad for someone who went undrafted just two years ago.
While the 25-year-old could have made more money if another team would have tried to get him on an offer sheet, he's happy to be back in Los Angeles.
"It definitely creeps into your mind obviously when there's a little bit of talks back and forth about something possibly coming to light," Reaves said of his free agency. "But I didn't think that there was any way that the Lakers didn't match whatever was offered. They pretty much made it pretty clear that they were gonna match whatever. You think about it a little bit but at the end of the day I wanted to be in L.A. I love it out here, love the organization, the fans."
Now, Reaves has gone from a relative unknown to an integral part of the Lakers' present and future, even getting his photo taken with LeBron James and Anthony Davis during media day.
Potentially insinuating a new big three in town?
While Reaves was solid in the regular season last year, he really shone in the playoffs, averaging 16.9 points per game to go along with 4.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists on 43.3 percent shooting from three-point range.
