Lakers: Is Austin Reaves The New Alex Caruso?
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When your roster is littered with past-their-prime veterans just waiting to get injured, you need to hope that some of your younger pickups hit. For the Los Lakers, free agent signing coups like Malik Monk and Kendrick Nunn (although Nunn has had an injury so bad that it will apparently keep him out until some time in 2022), plus $30.8 million man Talen Horton-Tucker, are the more familiar young names who still have room to develop and grow.
Beyond that triumvirate of frisky young guards, however, the cupboard looked pretty bare heading into the 2021-22 NBA season, after the team traded away much of its depth to add 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook to join All-Star duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis. LA signed a bunch of past-their-prime pieces around that core triumvirate, some of whom have been hits relative to their price tags (Avery Bradley, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard), some of whom have been misses (Kent Bazemore, DeAndre Jordan).
In a fortunate turn for a club desperate for depth, undrafted rookie shooting guard Austin Reaves may just be another young diamond in the rough.
The hard-nosed 6'5" rookie, nicknamed "Hillbilly Kobe" while at Oklahoma, has emerged as a solid complimentary fit for the Lakers on both sides of the ball.
In 18.5 minutes per game, the 23-year-old rookie is averaging 5.3 points per game (on 48.3% shooting from the floor and 86.7% shooting from the charity stripe), 2.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists. Reaves has cooled off from deep lately -- he's connecting on just 30.3% of his 4.3 three-point looks a night. From within the three-point arc, though (and more specifically, from within 16 feet), Reaves has remained very effective. He is nailing 72% of his 3.2 two-point looks a night, which includes 100% of his takes from within 10-16 feet, 88.9% of his attempts from within 0-3 feet, and 62.5% of his looks from within 3-10 feet.
By benefit of just being 6'5", Reaves is now one of the bigger wings on the team. Reaves is also one of the few players younger than 30 on this roster, and thus one of the few Lakers with intriguing upside.
The Lakers' perimeter depth is so thin that the team, weirdly enough, really needs Austin Reaves to turn into the current octopus-armed iteration of Alex Caruso, right now. Otherwise, it's going to be a long season on the perimeter. Like Caruso, Reaves has emerged from pre-draft obscurity to fulfill a helpful off-ball role along the perimeter for a LeBron James-led Lakers club. The similarities don't stop there. Both players are roughly the same size (again, Reaves is listed at 6'5", while Caruso is apparently 6'4") and can play either guard position.
Reaves had a hot start to his rookie season, but a hamstring injury impeded his development. Reaves struggled to reclaim his standing in the LA rotation over the last few games, though his hustle and moxie on both sides of the ball proved crucial during the Lakers' blowout victory over the Thunder on Friday. In 27:57 of game action (third-most on the team behind just LeBron James and Russell Westbrook), Reaves went 4-of-7 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to tally 13 points, along with five rebounds and two assists. He was also +17 for the contest, a plus-minus stat that ranked just behind James and Westbrook for tops in the game.
Along with Avery Bradley, Reaves has emerged as one of the more surprisingly-helpful two-way players on this top-heavy Los Angeles squad, currently sitting at a tenuous 14-13 record in the competitive Western Conference.
Reaves has already proven himself to be a way-more-important piece than LA could have reasonably anticipated heading into the season. Caruso himself even praised the rookie in a recent interview, noting that Reaves already looks like "one of those good glue guys that winning teams need."
During his first season with the Lakers, from 2017-18, Caruso's numbers were all more modest than Reaves's output. The chrome-domed wonder averaged just 3.6 points, 2.0 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 0.6 steals a game in 15.2 minutes. During the 2020-21 season, his last year with the Lakers, Caruso averaged 6.4 points (on 43.6% field goal shooting, 40.1% three-point shooting, and 64.5% free-throw shooting), 2.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.1 steals.
So, is Reaves going to turn into Alex Caruso any time soon?
Probably not. Alex Caruso has evolved from an undrafted rookie into one of the best perimeter defenders in the entire NBA, and a legitimate force on offense, too. Despite his relatively modest offensive output, Caruso was always a defensive terror, at a level that would be unfair to expect from Reaves. It's unrealistic to expect anything that awesome out of another undrafted player, especially in his rookie season. That said, in terms of being a valuable two-way contributor who appears to be a good and useful fit on both sides of the ball, Reaves appears to be more than up to the task. And not a moment too soon for this vet-heavy Lakers club.
