Yep, it’ll bring eyeballs like at a carnival sideshow until folks figure out they are getting scammed. At some point folks will get tired of watching the guy go 2 for 10 every night while getting torched on defense by real NBA players and not just by these summer league scrubs. He’s not NBA material and is only there because Daddy is Lebron James and it’s that simple.
Bronny James getting a multi-million guaranteed contract is the robbery. Duh. The Lakers don’t need any help with sales or getting eyes on their product. It was done to make sure Lebron signed on for his last couple of years. If folks don’t understand that, they are woefully naive. He’ll be out of the league when Lebron retires but he’ll still have those millions. If Lebron retired right now, they’d just sign a couple of new stars and they’d still sell out.
I would. he would have to beat out Russell and Reeves. Also Dinwiddie and Vincent Being back puts them both in the rotation. This pushes Russell to playing more minutes at the 2. At the 3 he'd be competing with Cam Reddish. I do not see him starting outside of injuries just like most first-rounders for teams that want to compete for the playoffs won't be starting. The Lakers are not struggling for wings... they are actually drowning in them. Their real lack of depth is at the 1 and 5. Two positions Dalton cant play. The 1 is sorted if Gabe Vincent is back healthy but that means Dinwiddie and Russell will be playing more minutes at the 2. Lemon Daddy ain't giving up his minutes in fact he will be pushing for more.
What does team USA have to do with anything? If anything you'd expect fall off from not having offseason rest. Austin Reeves has improved every single year and last year was his best. He went from 7 to 13 to 16 points a game and improved defensively..that's what parlayed into his contract. Do people actually watch games or just listen to what talking heads say? he was 4th on the team scoring regular season and 3rd postseason. When he starts he is the third option but he was only a situational starter If Russell and Prince were healthy they often brought Reeves off the bench as he is instant offense.
It has to do with the expectations going into last year. He played well for team USA and then just OK for the lakers, especially early. It was a bit of a letdown. Now part of that was probably just that the hype got out of control and part of that may have been a lack of rest. Regardless, I don’t expect him to get many more minutes than last year unless he takes a leap which is exactly what I said.
I'm confused.. after playing in the summer instead of recuperating for the offseason he returned and played in every regular season and playoff game and produced his best season and that's a letdown? Guess how many Lakers played in EVERY game regular and postseason for the Lakers? one. Lemon Daddy. Performance in FIBA play and NBA play have very little correlation. Reeves will get used this year for sure, because he is one of their most valuable trade assets and a good young player.
It’s sorry that you were apparently asleep all of last summer. Maybe go check out some news stories from the time? Expectations were really high. He played OK but failed to meet the expectations. If he plays about the same this year, he’ll get about the same minutes or maybe a little less due to other roster changes. This isn’t some attack on Reaves. The hype was out of control.
I was busy watching games (lifelong Lakers fan). I do not follow social media because it is a bunch of nutjobs. I follow a few sources for Lakers news mostly former NBA players podcasts like Gils Arena and so on. I saw almost no disappointment because as stated he IMPROVED from the year before significantly. he was the only Laker to play all 82 (57 starts) regular season games and he also played (and started) in all 5 postseason games.
His takes are terrible but his knowledge of the game is legit. I don't pay attention to the off-court takes or his obvious trolling when they are trying to manufacture drama. Gil trolls a lot...but end of day the guy knows basketball and all the guys on his show including guests are current or former players. As far as my Lakers, much like with the Vols, I watch every game so can form my own opinion. Outside of Lebron and AD Austin Reeves has been the most important player on the Lakers the past 1.5 years.. full stop. There is no way around it. Second half of the 22-23 season he hit his stride and has stayed in it and has done nothing but improve since then.
Austin Reeves was an UDFA.
