Austin Reaves has proven that he deserved to hear his name called early on during the 2021 NBA Draft.
Reaves was knocked for his age and lack of athleticism in the draft process, but his on-ball skills as a scorer and passer stood out on tape.
Reaves ultimately decided to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers as an undrafted free agent, but the Detroit Pistons were willing to take him in the second round. However, Reaves revealed how he and his agents steered toward signing with Los Angeles instead via Mind the Game:
“My agents, they set up a plan. And the plan was that we knew L.A. had a two-way open on draft night and knew it was a situation to where I could possibly step in and get a contract, because I don’t know how many guys were under contract at that time. There were a lot of free agents, a lot of signing to be done.
“We knew that going in, and [Detroit] called in at 42, they came up to me. And, you know, it’s every kids’ dream to hear their name called on draft night, and I’m no different. It came down to sticking to a plan and that’s what we did. It sucked to not hear my name called, but obviously putting ourselves in a good position was much more important.”
Reaves also acknowledged that part of their decision involved earning a roster spot and playing next to LeBron James:
“They have a bunch of analytics guys that were grading teams by grade one, two, three, whatever it was. And I think it was Lakers, Bucks and maybe one other team that were Tier 1, like best possible fit. We kind of dove into that and listened to that. On another level, like we talked about, there was nobody, I think there were maybe like four or five guys under contract at the time.
“They ended up having to sign like seven guys. Knowing that there was going to be a possibility to snag that 13th or 14th roster spot. And on top of that, him (gestures to LeBron), the IQ level. I felt like I had a pretty good IQ to the game, and that was one way I could get my foot in the door was to lean on that and lean on knowing that game of basketball and that’s what [LeBron] does.”
Joining Los Angeles has to be the best decision of Reaves’ life as he’s grown into a star player that’s taken the league by storm. Reaves has even put himself in a position to be the second option on the Lakers, though he made sure to praise James for his sacrifices.
It’s fair to wonder how much more Reaves can improve, but either way the purple and gold should feel fortunate to have him on their side.
Austin Reaves credits Lakers despite loss
The Lakers recently lost to the Pistons, though it was hardly for a lack of effort as they battled until the very end. Competing hard against a quality opponent is an encouraging sign and one that Reaves liked to see from himself and his teammates.
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