Austin Reaves now finds himself as a foundation-building block alongside Luka Doncic for the Los Angeles Lakers. After originally going undrafted, he quickly propelled himself into an offensive engine and it led to him getting rewarded with a four-year, $180 million contract.
However, the Lakers as a whole have an entirely new roster and Doncic is trying to build that team chemistry early with a minicamp in his native Slovenia this month. Reaves personally shared his thoughts and excitement for the upcoming trip.
“I’m going to feel great,” Reaves said in an interview with 852sportsentertainment. “I’m gonna kick his [Doncic] ass in golf. That’ll be a lot of fun. But it’ll just be good to get around everybody. We got a fairly new team, a lot of new guys, so it’ll just be good to be around them, get to know one another off the court and just build that chemistry there.”
LeBron James’ departure catapulted Los Angeles into a new era with Doncic at the helm and general manager Rob Pelinka was proactive. Now, it is about putting those pieces together to try and contend for a championship.
L.A. clearly needed to add more youth to their roster along with more defensive-minded personnel. Steps were taken in that direction as Walker Kessler, Ziaire Williams, Matisse Thybulle and Quentin Grimes have shown defensive chops.
Additionally, Doncic continues to show a willingness to be a leader and he now needs to hold up his end of the bargain as the face of the franchise. While basketball will be played in Slovenia, it bodes well to have activities non-basketball related as every player can focus on having fun and getting to know their new teammates.
Lakers believe having Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves made free agent pitches easy
Losing an all-time great in James obviously stings, but the Lakers knew they needed to make significant changes this offseason. But Los Angeles needed to sell free agents on a vision of how they could fit on this new iteration of the Lakers.
Fortunately, Doncic remains an upper-echelon talent in the NBA and numerous players would love to play with him. Along with Reaves’ ascension, L.A. now has a top backcourt in the league.
That being said, those in the Lakers organization believed having Doncic and Reaves in the building made pitches to free agents easy. That became apparent, judging by how many moves the purple and gold made this summer.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
