Austin Reaves says LA Lakers teammate probably hasn’t played ‘at the standard he wants to’
The Los Angeles Lakers are getting set for the 2025-26 NBA season.
With all of the drama surrounding LeBron James and his pending retirement, the Los Angeles Lakers are focused on winning a championship with
Doncic spent this offseason getting into great shape and he seems eager to prove the naysayers wrong.
Meanwhile, Austin Reaves is entering a contract year and he could be poised for his best season to date.
Austin Reaves says Jake LaRavia can ‘be somebody’ that the Los Angeles Lakers ‘really need’
The Lakers made some nice additions in the offseason that should complement their big three of Doncic, James and Reaves.
The Lakers signed DeAndre Ayton, Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia.
LaRavia is good friends with Reaves and he projects to be a key player in the Lakers rotation this season.
However, Reaves noted that LaRavia hasn’t been playing to the standard he wants to as he adjusts to his new role. But that doesn’t mean the Lakers don’t have high hopes for him going forward.
“I think he’s been great. Obviously, there’s some things here and there that he hasn’t done to the standard that I’m sure he wants to, but at the same time, it’s not easy to come into a new team and be really, really good off the get go.
“He’s got a lot of promise, and he can be somebody that we really need on this team.
“We know he can do that, and now we just keep encouraging him to do that.”
Jake LaRavia’s career stats
LaRavia was selected 19th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves before having his draft rights traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.
LaRavia’s best season came in 2023-24 where he averaged 10.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 35 games with Memphis.
He was then traded to the Sacramento Kings the following season as part of a three-team deal involving the Washington Wizards.
LaRavia has averaged 6.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 136 regular-season games. The Lakers signed him in the offseason to a two-year, $12 million contract.
It took one preseason game for Al Horford to make the Warriors feel like contenders again
The Golden State Warriors are going for one last title in the Steph Curry Era, and the veteran center they grabbed off the market in what could be his last season might be the reason they get Steph ring No.5.
The Warriors beat the Lakers in a preseason tilt Sunday and as always, there wasn’t much to take away from a preaseason contest, especially one where the Lakers were without Luka Dončić and LeBron James.
But one thing stood out: the chemistry with Al Horford and Stephen Curry. Horford had three whole points and three whole assists in 14 minutes of play. But he found Curry on two give-and-go cuts and a dish to Buddy Hield for three. He screened to create separation for Curry and his ability to spread the floor helped with the gravity.
Al Horford officially signed with the Warriors on the 1st of the month and 4 days later doing give-and-gos with Steph Curry like they had been running together for years. Championship synergy. #DubNation pic.twitter.com/DFbUZ2yoXd
— Global Utopia Sports (@GL8BAL_SPORTS) October 6, 2025
Al Horford is a difference-maker for the Warriors
For as much starpower as the Warriors bring to the table, their frontcourt was razor thin before Horford joined last week. Draymond Green is still Draymon Green most nights, but on nights where he’s not, he’s really not. They lost Kevon Looney and had moved away from playing him consistently last season.
The Warriors had started to rely on Quinten Post (+20 in the Lakers win by the way) and Trayce Jackson-Davis at times. Sure, there’s Jonathan Kuminga on his fancy new deal, but it’s also very apparent that Steve Kerr neither trusts Kuminga nor believes he fits with Curry. (He doesn’t, Kuminga is a north-south player in an east-west system built around Curry.)
But with Horford, they have a reliable center when he’s available to play. They can go smallball with Green, still, but not having to will be a huge luxury. Horford can replicate a lot of what Green does, as well, both with his passing and in certain situations defensively. Horford makes everyone around him better, and is a guy who has missed the playoffs one year when healthy in his entire career going back almost two decades.
The Warriors want to believe their terrific end to the season after the Butler trade makes them contenders. Their second-round loss to the Wolves is easily explained away by the Curry injury. But in that stretch of games to end last season, it was apparent they needed one more guy in the frontcourt, and Al Horford is just about the perfect fit there.
The Warriors are old, Horford’s old, the whole thing is held together with prayer and athletic tape. But when they’re healthy, you’re going to see Al Horford as a player who not only makes the Warriors better, but makes Steph Curry even better, and that’s a frightening prospect even in a loaded Western Conference.
