Lakers 2024-25 Player Grades: Austin Reaves
Season In Review For Austin Reaves
Every good team needs players who are comfortable filling a role. It may not be the role they want, but the good players accept it regardless. Of any Laker on the roster this past season, there wasn’t a single player whose role was more ambiguous than Austin Reaves.
In a season that felt like three, Austin experienced sharing the backcourt with D’Angelo Russell, then being the primary guard ball handler, and finally having to figure out how to coexist with not only LeBron but Luka Doncic as well.
A tall task, especially with a brand-new head coach.
Regardless, Reaves took each change in stride and posted a career season. Reaves averaged a career high in points (20.2), assists (5.8), rebounds (4.5), steals (1.1), and free throw percentage (87.7). He was also able to sneak into the top-5 made threes in a season in Lakers history.
Austin Reaves: top five for the franchise 🎯 pic.twitter.com/Lt8bOeNNZd
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 4, 2025
Towards the end of the year, Reaves was constantly in discussion as the best number-three option in the entire league. Quite impressive given that he was not only undrafted, but just the 123rd highest paid player in the league.
Austin Reaves Player Grade: A-
Most players who have come through this league could only dream of having a season on par with Reaves’ 2024-25 campaign. Career highs in almost every statistic and carrying the torch as a pseudo “star” for stretches for the greatest franchise in the history of the sport is about as good as it gets.
We, as fans, got to witness a homegrown talent even more fully blossom into the potential superstar we’ve all been watching for the past four years.
One would think that instantly entails an A to A+ grade on the season. Unfortunately for Reaves, his playoff performance was abysmal.
To his credit, there were reports after their first-round series against Minnesota that Reaves was dealing with a sprain in his left big toe that should’ve kept him out 2-4 weeks. That would certainly help explain the performance we saw from him, because it looked like a different player.
A far cry from his regular-season stats, Reaves only averaged 16.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists. What was needed from him was his regular-season talent, and due to a lack of size and athleticism, paired with an injury, the team did not get that.
All together, his playoff fall-off wasn’t enough to shake what an outstanding season he was able to put together.
Moving Forward
Reaves’ next season will bring expectations that he has not yet experienced in his career. Just recently, similar to last season, Reaves’ agent added fuel to the expectations with another warning shot to the NBA.
The upcoming season will be a very interesting one for the young guard from Arkansas. He’ll now have to continue his offensive brilliance, while drastically improving on the defensive end due to his backcourt running mate frankly being a liability on that end.
Given his abundant talent and tenacious work ethic, this should be attainable for Reaves, and the organization can expect him to be a fan favorite yet again.
Reaves is reportedly set to decline his upcoming player option and will look to test free agency come the summer of 2026. Whether it be Los Angeles or the field, Austin Reaves will be doing his best to catch their attention.
