Austin Reaves Enjoyed Being Back On Court But Knows Lakers Are Work In Progress This Preseason
The NBA season is officially here with the Los Angeles Lakers kicking off preseason action on Friday night against the Phoenix Suns. Austin Reaves was a player who impressed with 20 points on 6-for-11 from the field in 21 minutes in a game with not a lot of positives for L.A.
Obviously, it is preseason and process matters more than results. The Lakers looked like a team with new pieces to integrate and missing two stars in LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
Moving forward, hopefully, the Lakers can establish an identity offensively and defensively. From Reaves’ perspective, he believes the team needs to compete harder and pay attention to the details moving forward in preseason but understands it’s still very early.
“I’ve been a part of [preseason], this is now five times, you understand that it’s not going to be perfect the first go around. The expectation of being perfect, we have a ways to get there and we know that,” Reaves said. “Like JJ (Redick) said, he was looking for three things and those things are not uncontrollables, they are controllables. In spurts, we were doing that and in spurts we weren’t. We just got to compete a little harder, pay a little bit more attention to the details and we’ll be fine.”
This is the first game action players have participated in, so rust is expected to come with that. But, Reaves looked aggressive and got to his spots with ease. With that, he shared he felt good out on the court despite not playing live basketball for awhile.
“Yeah, it felt good,” Reaves said. “Just enjoy playing basketball, Greg (St. Jean) told me twice already that I look quick and that might’ve been the two only times I’ve ever been told that. So, it feels good, but just happy to be out there playing basketball again with these guys.”
Seeing how Reaves has embraced being an on-ball creator is impressive as he looks comfortable orchestrating offense and creating for himself. If the regular season started right now, he showed he would be ready to play.
When the Arkansas native is the lone ball-handler, he has proven time and time again that it is not a daunting challenge for him. Hopefully, James and Doncic can suit up at least once or twice this preseason so Reaves sees what his offensive role will be moving forward, but regardless, he is clearly a player they will be counting on this season.
Austin Reaves thought Anthony Davis was joking with Lakers players
The Luka Doncic trade is immortalized as the craziest blockbuster deal in league history. So much so that when the news broke, seemingly no one believed it was real.
Anthony Davis broke the news to his teammates, but Austin Reaves revealed he thought he was joking at the time given his prankster personality.
Steph Curry Gives Fresh Perspective on Potential Retirement
At 37 years old and entering his 17th NBA season, Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry has been asked at every turn this offseason about whether he has any upcoming plans to retire or perhaps announce his NBA farewell tour. Curry usually shuts down those assertions outright, but he had a somewhat different answer this time around.
When asked about retirement in a July interview with Speedy Morman, Curry previously said that he was "nowhere close to retirement" . However, when asked by ESPN's Malika Andrews about the timeline of the remainder of his career at Warriors Media Day this past week, Curry acknowledged that the end of his career may come earlier than previously stated.
"I just know it's closer than it was, even yesterday," Curry said. "It's just a matter of, like, acknowledging it's fun, because the more I talk about it, the more you appreciate what all goes into preparing yourself." He might be one of the best in the game, but your mind and body won't always align.
"Acknowledging that it does take a little longer to get warmed up for practice for a game or recovery might take a little longer, but all that stuff is just the privilege that you've earned because of all the work that I put into it. I'm trying not to put any timestamps or anything other than knowing that there's a sense of urgency on the net."
Working Through Age
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One of the biggest challenges for Curry in his 17th season in the league will be keeping himself healthy for the entire 82-game regular season slate and a potential postseason run. The Warriors' 2024-25 campaign effectively ended in Game 1 in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, when Curry went down with a season-ending hamstring injury.
"You know, you have to stay healthy," Curry said. "It's a war of attrition for every team in the league and, you know, for us to hopefully not have any position where we're chasing like we were down the stretch last year and give ourselves some breathing room head into a playoff race on a playoff run, I feel like that's motivation enough. I'm excited to get back out there and hopefully be on the floor."
The Warriors are scheduled to open the regular season at home against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 21, with the game airing on NBC as the second leg of the NBA's season-opening double header (following Oklahoma City vs. Houston) in the league's long-awaited return to the network.
