There is no denying that Austin Reaves struggled in the Los Angeles Lakers’ first round series loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The guard shot just 41.1% from the field and 31.9% from 3-point range while having nearly as many turnovers as assists.
Throughout the regular season, Reaves emerged as one of the most important pieces of this Lakers roster and enjoyed his best season overall. But after his rough playoff performance, and the Lakers obviously needing to make some roster changes this summer, some have wondered whether they would consider dealing Reaves.
But as it currently stands, that is highly unlikely as Jovan Buha of The Athletic noted in recent Q&A that the Lakers do not want to trade Reaves and value him very highly:
“I think the possibility of him being traded is actually low, at least this summer. This is something that we reported at The Athletic, for those who missed it last week on Friday, I had a big report with Sam Amick. One of the things that we reported there is that the Lakers do not want to trade Austin. That’s something I’ve continually heard for over 3 years now. That’s something I’ve reported multiple times over the last few years, that the Lakers have a high bar for trading Austin, value him, and view him highly. Forget what we’ve reported and what we’ve heard behind the scenes, just look at the public messaging where JJ Redick and Rob Polinka both spoke highly of Austin during the Lakers’ exit interviews last week. Rob called him one of the pillars of the organization. Going back a couple of months, JJ mentioned Austin in that conversation that he, LeBron and Luka had about the state of the offense at that time and JJ said at the time, of course Austin would be included in this conversation. So JJ thinks highly of Austin, Rob thinks highly of Austin, Jeanie thinks highly of Austin. So I don’t expect Austin to be traded this summer despite a lot of people willing to sell him for 20 cents on the dollar, 40 cents on the dollar, 60 cents on the dollar.”
This doesn’t mean that there is no chance the Lakers would trade Reaves, but that it would have to be for a big-time player since, as Buha noted, they have a high bar for dealing him. Simply put, Reaves wouldn’t be traded away for a decent role player, it would have to be for a borderline star and someone extremely impactful.
The idea of potentially trading Reaves makes at least some sense as he is undoubtedly the Lakers’ best trade piece that could fetch the most back in a deal and is due for a new contract in a year. But considering the praise recently showered on him by the Lakers’ brass, it would have to be a deal the franchise just couldn’t pass up.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves dealt with big toe sprain during playoffs
Perhaps one of the reasons Austin Reaves struggled the way he did in the playoffs was because he was dealing with a sprained big toe that he suffered in Game 3 of the series.
Reaves reportedly pushed through the injury that would normally take a few weeks to heal and was not walking on it at all during the team’s off days.
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