"We didn't have the time": Austin Reaves marvels at Lakers' swift ascent to Western Conference Finals post-trade deadline
Last season, Austin Reaves witnessed the Los Angeles Lakers turn their season around after making a flurry of moves at the February trade deadline. Rob Pelinka re-tooled the Lakers rotation, adding versatile wing defenders, additional size, and some perimeter scoring. The team didn't look back after those changes were made.
Suddenly, a team that had struggled all season began to put things together. A deep postseason run followed, with Reaves cementing himself as an important member of his team's rotation. However, the Lakers fell short of their championship goal, getting swept by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
When speaking to Zach Lowe on his "The Lowe Post" podcast, Austin Reaves noted how the Lakers "didn't have the time" to gel to the same level as the Nuggets.
Reaves commented that Denver has been building their championship rotation for multiple years, while the Lakers had only been together for a few months:
"I felt like it was hard for us to get to that level of even just a system because we didn't have the time," Reaves said. "Like, they were all together basically the whole year. They played 82 games before the postseason, being able to figure things out, you know, a lot of things in that span of time."
He continued by stating that the Lakers have built arguably the deepest roster in the NBA over the offseason and have a chance to make a push for a championship in the coming season:
"We brought in, a lot of guys that are super talented. I would argue we probably have the most talented roster in the league from top to bottom. Getting Christian Wood on a minimum [contract,] Gabe [Vincent] coming from the finals. We have a lot of guys that are super talented. And like I said, just getting this time to really build a foundation with one another is gonna help us a lot."
Austin Reaves is expected to have a big role within the Lakers rotation next season. The 25-year-old has proven himself as an elite complementary player alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis and will be relied upon to provide secondary scoring and playmaking, while also providing energy and hustle.
Austin Reaves believes he plays well with LeBron James
In the same podcast appearance, Austin Reaves explained why his game meshes so well with LeBron James.
The 6-foot-5 wing has spent his entire career on the same team as the superstar forward and has found some common ground with him regarding how they see the game of basketball.
"There was no real conversation, like, off the court or anything I always knew that we from day one, we connected on that IQ level," Reaves said. "Just thinking the game differently than other people do."
The Los Angeles Lakers will be hoping that the connection between Reaves and LeBron continues in the coming season, as it will give them an additional boost in their search for their first championship since 2020 and the second championship of the LeBron James era.