The story of Austin Reaves’ NBA journey is truly an incredible one. The guard went undrafted out of Oklahoma with the Los Angeles Lakers signing him to a two-way contract.
But before training camp even got underway, the Lakers converted his deal into a standard NBA contract after he had impressed during a players-only minicamp.
From there, injuries thrust Reaves into an unexpected rotation spot and he showed the stage wasn’t too big for him even as a rookie. Down the stretch of his second season, Reaves took a massive leap and didn’t slow down in his first postseason appearance, putting the world on notice that he was here to stay and helping push the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals.
Reaves would parlay that into a new four-year, $56 million deal last summer to remain with the Lakers. And staying with the franchise for the remainder of his career is the goal as he spoke to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype about how appreciative he is of the organization and fans for the opportunity they gave him:
“Going into free agency this year, that was the main thing, which was to get back here (Los Angeles). The fans and organization are great. There’s so much history here. I want to try and chip into the history movement. It’s an unbelievable organization that gave me an opportunity that not a lot of people wanted to do. They took a chance on me and really helped me get my start.”
Reaves is one of the truly great finds the Lakers have made in recent years. No one could have expected him to become the player that he is so quickly, but he is an absolutely integral part of the Lakers’ success and the franchise views him as one of their most important pieces.
It is rare these days that a player stays with one team for the entirety of their NBA career, but Reaves has made it clear that he loves being a member of this organization. And as long as he continues to deliver for the Lakers, they would love to keep him around.
Austin Reaves: Lakers must play near perfect basketball to defeat Nuggets
For the time being, Austin Reaves’ focus is on the postseason and the Lakers trying to take down the Denver Nuggets. Game 1 didn’t go their way as the Nuggets used big runs in the second and third quarter to take control and Reaves admitted those runs are frustrating before adding that the Lakers need to be nearly perfect to take down the defending champions.
“I mean, they’re super frustrating, obviously, especially against a team like them because you almost have to play a perfect game anyway because they don’t make mistakes,” Reaves said.
“And when you kind of get them into say a 5-0, 7-0 run, they slow everything down and get exactly where they need and they know exactly what they’re gonna get, they’re gonna get an action that they’re very comfortable with, that they’re ran a million times. We just got to control the flip-flop of that.”