Austin Reaves 2023-24 NBA Fantasy Outlook: Projecting Lakers wingman's performance this season
Austin Reaves is having the time of his life this 2023 as he showed the world that he is a reliable tandem with LeBron James resulting in a 2023 FIBA World Cup stint for Team USA. His efforts are recognized by the Lakers management and was given a contract extension but we now explore how all of this affects his 2023-24 NBA Fantasy numbers.
In just his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers, Reaves numbers jumped from 7.3 to 13.0 points per game. He has been given an extra five minutes of playing time per game and logged in 28 minutes last season.
What has been amazing about Reaves is that his field goals improved to 51% and the 3-point shooting up to almost 40%. Aside from the percentages, the assists are up by almost two a game.
Entering the 2023-24 NBA Fantasy season, he is ranked by Yahoo! at 98 and he wrestles being picked along with Ja Morant, Tre Jones and D'Angelo Russel above him. Spencer Dinwiddie, Wendell Carter Jr. and Jonas Valanciounas rank just below him. The draft position of Reaves makes him a standard pick in the eighth round.
While this season, he is expected to take his game to a higher level, and fans may see more of that in his touches that will improve the offense. If he puts up scoring numbers at the 18 mark, he is clearly now the third option behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Austin Reaves NBA Fantasy Draft Strategy
At this point, if you are targeting Austin Reaves in the eighth round, it is assumed that you already filled up the bigs and guard players. Your assists, rebounds and blocks should be a satisfactory rate before you choose Reaves because there are other great options for those stats besides Reaves.
Nonetheless, Reaves is a great addition to your wing depth and he is expected to play at least 65 games this upcoming season. If you need a player who will boost your percentage stats after drafting stars that have low field goals and free throws, he will be a great equalizer to have.
Drafting Austin Reaves in the eighth round is a good place to get him but not above. If he falls down to ninth, which we doubt because of his popularity nowadays, Reaves would be a great steal.