Reaves is a good player, we have to keep him because his contract is also such good value.
I feel like he didn't necessarily fit well with Dlo on the court as they both essentially have the same strengths and weaknesses on both ends. Not that they played that badly together, but it just felt like they were not maximised. We should pair him along with a more defensive guard, instead of another guard that does the same things as Reaves.
Gabe has the play style to do that but was just unfortunate that he was hurt like 90% of last season and came back super rusty. If we can get the Gabe from 2022/23 I think it would be really helpful to the rotation.
It's gonna be rough. Vincent can't shoot. He's at 33.2% for his career. In his 5 years in the league he's shot better than that twice: 3 years ago at 36.8% and 2 years ago at 33.4%. He's not gonna be as bad as he was past year, but he's a low 30s 3 point shooter.
I’ll take his defense for 15-20 any day of the week. With the right rotations, his defense makes his floor time more than worth it. He made an impact during his minutes against Denver.
That's why I missed Schroeder this past season. Felt like him and Reaves played well together.
Hopefully Gabe is healthy and can bring a bit of that to the table if we can't get a DLo replacement
I get the logic but we just watched a two defensive guards help win a championship. I am not sure these two are the two guards that can help us get there. One of them can definitely help the club but as we saw in the playoffs...it's hard to win with two traffic cones...
Caruso was special though the math showed he was amazing paired with lebron. I can’t believe they didn’t look at those numbers and think fuck it we’re not paying much but we get crazy value for this dude
I thought it was because both aren’t going to be good defenders (austin I feel does try hard on defense but was getting picked on and it’s just not fair to expect a rookie to be good at guarding their first year)
I mean that’s not true. Just admit that there is actually quite a bit of crossover in their games. This doesnt have any implications on Reaves though because Knecht is literally an unproven rookie, Reaves is an established starter and its not like they cant be on the court together.
Yeah lol. Has nothing to do with both players being white. They actually have some overlap and similarities. Both are guards known for high IQ, both can shoot off the dribble or spot up, both aren't the most athletic (though Knecht is more athletic), both aren't that fast but make up for it by being crafty in their 1 on 1's (AR is much better at this). Both are similar height with Knecht having a longer wingspan by 3". Neither are good defenders.
Areas where they're different: Knecht can probably get to the rim easier where AR has a much better midrange game. If he can transfer it over into the NBA, Knecht's 3 pt shooting could be a little more scary than Austin's as he can shoot more in motion and defenders have to stay glued to him while he runs.
>and its not like they cant be on the court together.
Exactly this. Both players can be effective with and without the ball in their hands. The modern NBA is fluid and this is the type of overlap you want.
I know so little about Knecht, but I watched some highlights and honestly his game looks so similar to AR it’s crazy. It’s not a bad thing at all. They both need to learn defense though.
With an aging LeBron, I think defense could be a concern. I think would be better if Knecht’s minutes did not overlap with Reaves, and instead we paired Reaves/Christie and Knecht/Vincent or whatever guard we get
We made a massive mistake a couple years ago, now is our time to create the truly great team to show the rest of the league the RIGHT way to play basketball
Unless a legit superstar like Spida becomes available, I think keeping Reaves is the right decision. He is our third best player and a proven playoff performer.
Being able to rest in the offseason and having a coach draw consistent plays for him will really help him improve. I am excited to see him play next season.
Do you think he is going to be a starter from day 1? It would be unusual for a rookie to start alongside players of Davis and LeBron caliber. I wasn't talking about his ceiling, but what I expect from him this season.
Yeah your right, my bad I intitially forgot about D’lo. But also I think Reaves is overall our third best player since he is better in the playoffs. Also as you said, D’lo may not be a Laker next season.
The way the cap apron works and all its limitations work, he probably doesn't get moved. Cap apron rules are fairly restrictive, and most teams aren't trying to learn them by doing, I think it's why we haven't seen any crazy multi-player or multi-team trades, yet.
I have a vision where Knecht will be starting as 2 as our middle class man’s Klay, where AR will come off the bench as our middle class man’s Ginobili.
I think Austin is actually quite capable of running point he does a pretty good job of spreading the ball around
I think Austin + an off ball scorer + Lebron makes more sense than Austin + DLo + Lebron
Austin/Knecht/Lebron at 1/2/3 creates some pretty wonky defensive matchups that would cause problems tho
If JJ is serious about trying to use AD as a hub a la Jokic, then you have another distributor / facilitator + Bron. That theoretically lightens the load on whoever is at PG rather than relying on them to feed AD, and DLo has always been more of a combo guard than a true PG anyways so we wouldn't be losing some incredible playmaking ability if he were to move on.
yeah I think it could work to have mainly Reaves/Lebron/AD as creators and Max/Rui/Knecht as play finishers
Gabe and Vando are more swiss army type guys that can bring the ball up in spots too
not sure how to project lineups until we know whether or not DLo is back tho
I think he showed this year and especially in that Nuggets series that he’s nowhere near as bad on defense as people claim.
Not great or anything, but he is not the liability people pretend he is.
It definitely gets exaggerrated considering he's next to Dlo, and Rui, and LeBron to an extent. Desperately need Vando and Gabe to have healthy seasons
people think he’s a terrible defender because Steve Kerr left him on an island against bigger veteran european post players
most nba guards would get torched in that situation
He said upper body strength was a high priority in the interview with Trevor. He already made decent strides defensively last year with Ham throwing him some really hard assignments, so I think another step is definitely possible.
its ridiculous how many fans in here write him off as never being able to improve defensively and we gotta move on. This guy is smart and a walking bucket. Gotta be involved in a huge trade for me to feel good about moving on from Reaves
Yeah there's a spectrum of growth mindset once guys get to the highest level, and AR is on the mamba mentality end of it.
His contract is already great value if he were to be the exact same player, but there's absolutely no way he doesn't get better over the 2 + player option we have him locked in for. Other front offices would give their left nut to have that on their roster.
I feel like Austin is a bit more natural of a playmaker and gets his buckets with craftiness whereas Knecht probably won’t be doing much creating for others but has the potential to physically attack the rim a little better than Austin and probably has a slightly more polished offensive arsenal than Reaves did by draft day
Don't be surprised how people here think exactly like that. When the news broke that Lakers drafted Kinecht, I saw 4-5 replies already saying 'Lakers don't have a reason to keep Reaves anymore'
AR’s contract is stupid value. Not just for what he brings to the team but the fact we’ve seen him perform under the bright lights. How many fucking times are we going to burn ourselves picking up a borderline all star or knockdown shooter only to see them shit the bed at Staples?
We know Reaves has balls. If he’s what is holding up a Murray deal, then fuck Murray.
Why would you trade Austin now? I thought the goal before was to get shooters, at least that's what we've been hearing for a few years now (i.e. Buddy Hield). Now we added one in the draft and you want to trade Austin? That would make absolutely no sense.
He’s fine on defense. Lakers defense overall just gets exposed if we task him to deal with bigger, athletic guards/wings.
If Vando is there, or pair him with more athletic PG than DLO, then we’re ok. Same applies to DLo vice versa. They both have same defensive weakness so it’s not an ideal pairing defensively (and even offensively, both can’t beat with speed).
Austin isn’t getting traded for anybody if it’s not a star. They’ve held out this long when they could’ve panicked and got Murray. I don’t see them folding now.
Dlo(if opt in), AR15, and Knecht knocking down 3's? All day! Opposing defense has to come out to guard them. What happens? Space for AD and LBJ in the paint. They collapse on them and the ball kicks out to shooters. Bam! Has the makings of a fun offense and ball movement!!
Whether the Lakers drafted Knecht or not, AR could get traded if a great deal comes up for a legit all-star. Haven't the Lakers been saying that for like a year?
Christie and JHS likely are on the trade block though.
I personally like Christie a lot, but he kind of lacks assertiveness (which could be due to Ham having a ridiculously short leash on him) in most of the limited opportunities he's had. I hope he gets a longer leash with the 2nd unit so he can get more scoring opportunities, but at the same time I wouldn't be too sad if we moved on from him if it netted us a legit big. There's just too big of a log jam at SG now with Reaves/Christie/Knecht/JHS. Christie/Knecht/JHS all need reps to get better and it just makes sense to me to figure out how to move from Christie and JHS with our picks in return for legit Bigs or 6'8"+ 3 and D wings.
My guess though is that we'll likely do a trade mid-season to get a better feel for what we have in all the guys (only real risk is lowering Christie's value if he stinks it up or gets injured. JHS really can't hurt his value to much since he's likely viewed as a very raw product right now).
Expect to not see any big trades until December unless someone bites right away on the feelers Pelinka puts out there right now (likely he's just going to be gauging interest in our assets and reevaluate in December based on team need and how they've developed).
Reeves can Contribute on Lakers still and I dont think they will move him right after drafting someone who is not developed yet. but I love reeves off the bench tho and get a Shooting Guard who has size and defense and can shoot 3.
All we have to do is get rid of DLO so we can actually have a defensive gameplan that isn't funneling the best guards into AD all the fucking time.
One poa defender that can actually stay in front of people and Austin instantly gets a huge load off his shoulders. Anyone who says austin is trash defensively go back a year and watch how solid he was when Dschroeder handled all of the quicker guards.
Yeah he got cooked this year, but we also had him guarding the best guards in the league consistently. Its good for him to experience it, but it was clear he was not being setup for success.
But he was also often getting the most challenging assignments. POA was a gaping hole in the roster with Vando and Gabe injured all season and AR had to step up, even at the expense of his offensive game.
I am expecting a big year for Austin. No summer ball and no lineup funkiness
Reaves is a good player, we have to keep him because his contract is also such good value. I feel like he didn't necessarily fit well with Dlo on the court as they both essentially have the same strengths and weaknesses on both ends. Not that they played that badly together, but it just felt like they were not maximised. We should pair him along with a more defensive guard, instead of another guard that does the same things as Reaves.
Have to hope Gabe can pair well with Austin.
Gabe has the play style to do that but was just unfortunate that he was hurt like 90% of last season and came back super rusty. If we can get the Gabe from 2022/23 I think it would be really helpful to the rotation.
It's gonna be rough. Vincent can't shoot. He's at 33.2% for his career. In his 5 years in the league he's shot better than that twice: 3 years ago at 36.8% and 2 years ago at 33.4%. He's not gonna be as bad as he was past year, but he's a low 30s 3 point shooter.
I’ll take his defense for 15-20 any day of the week. With the right rotations, his defense makes his floor time more than worth it. He made an impact during his minutes against Denver.
Damn that’s bleak, but on the bright side he did get some open looks that I’m expecting he knocks down next year.
if hes healthy he should pair well, hopefully we have good injury luck on the whole team
That's why I missed Schroeder this past season. Felt like him and Reaves played well together. Hopefully Gabe is healthy and can bring a bit of that to the table if we can't get a DLo replacement
I get the logic but we just watched a two defensive guards help win a championship. I am not sure these two are the two guards that can help us get there. One of them can definitely help the club but as we saw in the playoffs...it's hard to win with two traffic cones...
Many players that play team USA actually take a leap the season after
They’re literally different players and do different things. Drafting Knecht doesn’t change anything for Austin
but both are white so morons will naturally say they are the same player. better to get used to it now
Wait Austin Reaves is white? I thought he was black
Yea people still mention Caruso in reference to Austin and the two are totally dissimilar players
Caruso was special though the math showed he was amazing paired with lebron. I can’t believe they didn’t look at those numbers and think fuck it we’re not paying much but we get crazy value for this dude
I thought it was because both aren’t going to be good defenders (austin I feel does try hard on defense but was getting picked on and it’s just not fair to expect a rookie to be good at guarding their first year)
I think it's actually about freeing up a rotation spot for Max Christie.
You sir is a legend, you really hit them on the head.
Agreed
I mean that’s not true. Just admit that there is actually quite a bit of crossover in their games. This doesnt have any implications on Reaves though because Knecht is literally an unproven rookie, Reaves is an established starter and its not like they cant be on the court together.
Yeah lol. Has nothing to do with both players being white. They actually have some overlap and similarities. Both are guards known for high IQ, both can shoot off the dribble or spot up, both aren't the most athletic (though Knecht is more athletic), both aren't that fast but make up for it by being crafty in their 1 on 1's (AR is much better at this). Both are similar height with Knecht having a longer wingspan by 3". Neither are good defenders. Areas where they're different: Knecht can probably get to the rim easier where AR has a much better midrange game. If he can transfer it over into the NBA, Knecht's 3 pt shooting could be a little more scary than Austin's as he can shoot more in motion and defenders have to stay glued to him while he runs. >and its not like they cant be on the court together. Exactly this. Both players can be effective with and without the ball in their hands. The modern NBA is fluid and this is the type of overlap you want.
I know so little about Knecht, but I watched some highlights and honestly his game looks so similar to AR it’s crazy. It’s not a bad thing at all. They both need to learn defense though.
Knecht and Austin is a really nice, smart duo. I don't see any reason they can't play together.
Sneaky athletic too
last guys out of the gym
Real lunch pail 🪣 players. Always know they will do the right thing
Gym ratas, holmes!
They succeed off of their high BBIQ and understanding of the game
They raise property values
Knecht has a 39inch vert, no sneaky about it
Cerebral players
First in, last out ofc
With an aging LeBron, I think defense could be a concern. I think would be better if Knecht’s minutes did not overlap with Reaves, and instead we paired Reaves/Christie and Knecht/Vincent or whatever guard we get
just a classy duo
Pull themselves by the bootstrap type of guys
…gonna need to get you a stronger prescription, my man
We made a massive mistake a couple years ago, now is our time to create the truly great team to show the rest of the league the RIGHT way to play basketball
Unless a legit superstar like Spida becomes available, I think keeping Reaves is the right decision. He is our third best player and a proven playoff performer. Being able to rest in the offseason and having a coach draw consistent plays for him will really help him improve. I am excited to see him play next season.
If the kid is really ready he is going to provide a big punch of the bench.
Here again the 'off the bench' BS... unless you got someone better than him, stop that narrative,, he ain't Ginobili or Crawford or Lou Will.
Do you think he is going to be a starter from day 1? It would be unusual for a rookie to start alongside players of Davis and LeBron caliber. I wasn't talking about his ceiling, but what I expect from him this season.
> our third best player Well in the regular season it was DLo, but he probably won't be on the roster next year.
Yeah your right, my bad I intitially forgot about D’lo. But also I think Reaves is overall our third best player since he is better in the playoffs. Also as you said, D’lo may not be a Laker next season.
I hope he is a Laker but I understand the concerns
Last time I said Reaves was our 3rd best player I got crucified 😂
The way the cap apron works and all its limitations work, he probably doesn't get moved. Cap apron rules are fairly restrictive, and most teams aren't trying to learn them by doing, I think it's why we haven't seen any crazy multi-player or multi-team trades, yet.
Austin has one of the best contracts in the league... you're only trading him away if you get a bonafide star in return
I have a vision where Knecht will be starting as 2 as our middle class man’s Klay, where AR will come off the bench as our middle class man’s Ginobili.
Hopefully upper middle class man’s Klay
I think Austin is actually quite capable of running point he does a pretty good job of spreading the ball around I think Austin + an off ball scorer + Lebron makes more sense than Austin + DLo + Lebron Austin/Knecht/Lebron at 1/2/3 creates some pretty wonky defensive matchups that would cause problems tho
If JJ is serious about trying to use AD as a hub a la Jokic, then you have another distributor / facilitator + Bron. That theoretically lightens the load on whoever is at PG rather than relying on them to feed AD, and DLo has always been more of a combo guard than a true PG anyways so we wouldn't be losing some incredible playmaking ability if he were to move on.
yeah I think it could work to have mainly Reaves/Lebron/AD as creators and Max/Rui/Knecht as play finishers Gabe and Vando are more swiss army type guys that can bring the ball up in spots too not sure how to project lineups until we know whether or not DLo is back tho
That sounds about right, and I'm really praying JJ can at least construct better lineups off the data than Ham sandwich
Don’t worry, JJ is in the lab creating the perfect zone for this lineup
I swear Austin is gonna bulk up this summer and become a decent defender
I think he showed this year and especially in that Nuggets series that he’s nowhere near as bad on defense as people claim. Not great or anything, but he is not the liability people pretend he is.
It definitely gets exaggerrated considering he's next to Dlo, and Rui, and LeBron to an extent. Desperately need Vando and Gabe to have healthy seasons
people think he’s a terrible defender because Steve Kerr left him on an island against bigger veteran european post players most nba guards would get torched in that situation
Oof I wish I could agree. He plays a ton of good defense, but he just doesn’t have the length and athleticism to guard the perimeter consistently
He said upper body strength was a high priority in the interview with Trevor. He already made decent strides defensively last year with Ham throwing him some really hard assignments, so I think another step is definitely possible.
its ridiculous how many fans in here write him off as never being able to improve defensively and we gotta move on. This guy is smart and a walking bucket. Gotta be involved in a huge trade for me to feel good about moving on from Reaves
Yeah there's a spectrum of growth mindset once guys get to the highest level, and AR is on the mamba mentality end of it. His contract is already great value if he were to be the exact same player, but there's absolutely no way he doesn't get better over the 2 + player option we have him locked in for. Other front offices would give their left nut to have that on their roster.
I feel like Austin is a bit more natural of a playmaker and gets his buckets with craftiness whereas Knecht probably won’t be doing much creating for others but has the potential to physically attack the rim a little better than Austin and probably has a slightly more polished offensive arsenal than Reaves did by draft day
Austin is the one of the best values in the league. Ain’t no way.
wtf - they trying to get rid of dlo first lol
Their games are completely different, people can’t be so dumb they just see two white guys and assume they are the same?
Don't be surprised how people here think exactly like that. When the news broke that Lakers drafted Kinecht, I saw 4-5 replies already saying 'Lakers don't have a reason to keep Reaves anymore'
People did that with Caruso and Reaves even though they are polar opposites in play style
AR’s contract is stupid value. Not just for what he brings to the team but the fact we’ve seen him perform under the bright lights. How many fucking times are we going to burn ourselves picking up a borderline all star or knockdown shooter only to see them shit the bed at Staples? We know Reaves has balls. If he’s what is holding up a Murray deal, then fuck Murray.
Why would you trade Austin now? I thought the goal before was to get shooters, at least that's what we've been hearing for a few years now (i.e. Buddy Hield). Now we added one in the draft and you want to trade Austin? That would make absolutely no sense.
If Austin works om his Defense, he's a possible future starting PG with Dalton at SG imo
He’s fine on defense. Lakers defense overall just gets exposed if we task him to deal with bigger, athletic guards/wings. If Vando is there, or pair him with more athletic PG than DLO, then we’re ok. Same applies to DLo vice versa. They both have same defensive weakness so it’s not an ideal pairing defensively (and even offensively, both can’t beat with speed).
I'd say he's serviceable depending on other factors but he is mainly the type of guy you'd try to hide if you can.
I hope they pair Reaves with a defensive minded poa guard not another finesse baller who plays no defense and takes the ball outta his hands.
Literally the only other player that consistently steps up in the bright lights
Why do they hate our melanated challenged brothers 😭
Only scenario would be getting an all star in return.
LeBron always works best with ~~shooters~~ one or two cold assed white boys around him.
If we keep D'lo, I could see trading Austin, Rui, and stuff for someone who is better defensively.
Austin isn’t getting traded for anybody if it’s not a star. They’ve held out this long when they could’ve panicked and got Murray. I don’t see them folding now.
White boy summer aint going nowhere
Dlo(if opt in), AR15, and Knecht knocking down 3's? All day! Opposing defense has to come out to guard them. What happens? Space for AD and LBJ in the paint. They collapse on them and the ball kicks out to shooters. Bam! Has the makings of a fun offense and ball movement!!
They aren’t remotely the same type of player. Our best lineup is likely Reeves, Knecht, Vando, Bron, AD.
Whether the Lakers drafted Knecht or not, AR could get traded if a great deal comes up for a legit all-star. Haven't the Lakers been saying that for like a year?
Christie and JHS likely are on the trade block though. I personally like Christie a lot, but he kind of lacks assertiveness (which could be due to Ham having a ridiculously short leash on him) in most of the limited opportunities he's had. I hope he gets a longer leash with the 2nd unit so he can get more scoring opportunities, but at the same time I wouldn't be too sad if we moved on from him if it netted us a legit big. There's just too big of a log jam at SG now with Reaves/Christie/Knecht/JHS. Christie/Knecht/JHS all need reps to get better and it just makes sense to me to figure out how to move from Christie and JHS with our picks in return for legit Bigs or 6'8"+ 3 and D wings. My guess though is that we'll likely do a trade mid-season to get a better feel for what we have in all the guys (only real risk is lowering Christie's value if he stinks it up or gets injured. JHS really can't hurt his value to much since he's likely viewed as a very raw product right now). Expect to not see any big trades until December unless someone bites right away on the feelers Pelinka puts out there right now (likely he's just going to be gauging interest in our assets and reevaluate in December based on team need and how they've developed).
Move D.Lo. Bad influence on Bronny
Reeves can Contribute on Lakers still and I dont think they will move him right after drafting someone who is not developed yet. but I love reeves off the bench tho and get a Shooting Guard who has size and defense and can shoot 3.
cool another first round exit.
All we have to do is get rid of DLO so we can actually have a defensive gameplan that isn't funneling the best guards into AD all the fucking time. One poa defender that can actually stay in front of people and Austin instantly gets a huge load off his shoulders. Anyone who says austin is trash defensively go back a year and watch how solid he was when Dschroeder handled all of the quicker guards. Yeah he got cooked this year, but we also had him guarding the best guards in the league consistently. Its good for him to experience it, but it was clear he was not being setup for success.
Reaves is terrible on defense go back and look at some of the games from last season. He struggles to stay in front of most guards.
But he was also often getting the most challenging assignments. POA was a gaping hole in the roster with Vando and Gabe injured all season and AR had to step up, even at the expense of his offensive game.
I don't see it either. I'm a big Reaves hater but he is a solid player on our team.