The Los Angeles Lakers will begin the 2023-24 season on the road as they bear witness to the Denver Nuggets raising their first championship banner in their franchise’s history.
Austin Reaves is hoping the Lakers can rain on their parade, though, especially given that the Nuggets swept them in the playoffs.
Despite the four-game thumping, Reaves showed he belonged on the NBA’s biggest stage as he was Los Angeles’ third-best player in that series. Coming off that postseason run, Reaves went on to star for Team USA and further proved he’s ready to handle more responsibility.
With that in mind, Reaves said he and Darvin Ham have talked about giving him more on-ball reps and it’s a situation that the guard is happy to run with.
“Yeah, I feel really comfortable. Point guard is basically the position I’ve played my whole life until some of college and then obviously the last couple years. But I feel like that’s something that kind of never leaves you. Me and Darv have had conversations about that as well. Just having a little more opportunity to initiate, start, and it doesn’t necessarily mean make a play every possession, but get us into what we need to get in to and just kind of play that role.
“But like I’ve said a million times, we have so much talent on this team that every night it could be someone different. And it could be me, it could be DLo, Rui, like Gabe. Obviously Bron and AD’s gonna be Bron and AD. But like I said, so much talent, so much opportunity for everybody else and we got to see that as a big picture for us. We can’t get caught up in individual things. We have to really accept what we have and that’s a lot of talent and a lot of guys that can do that.”
As for the team’s title hopes, Reaves believes they’ve got enough to get the job done. “We obviously think we have enough to compete to win a championship. Obviously we haven’t played a game yet. We got to take it one game at a time and can’t look that far forward.
“But having that playoff push last year, Western Conference Finals, just getting that taste it’s really all you can really think about,” Reaves said. “For me especially, I just want to get back to that point and more. But I feel like we have an opportunity to do something special and a bunch of guys that are really unified to doing that. That’s all that really matters to us.”
If the purple and gold are to raise a banner of their own, Reaves is going to have to continue his ascent as a player. It’s a tall task for the 25-year-old, but he’s shown he shines the brightest when the pressure is on.
Austin Reaves outlines goals for 2023-24 season
When discussing the upcoming season, Reaves acknowledged that his and the team’s main goal is to win a championship. However, he also outlined some of his personal goals like playing the right way and handling the ball more.
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