Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves wasn't being disingenuous when he said that his golf outing one afternoon this summer was "ruined" by the news of LeBron James deciding to leave the Lakers. Reaves has certainly benefited from LeBron's tutelage through the years. In fact, Reaves has never been in the NBA -- nor on the Lakers -- without James as a teammate. “I don’t have enough time to explain how much he means to me and my career and what he’s done for me," Reaves said of James, per The New York Post.
Reaves is genuinely sad that his time with LeBron has come to an end, but there's an obvious basketball irony in all of this -- Reaves is about to get a lot more touches and shine a lot brighter in James' absence.
Austin Reaves' basketball existence just became a lot more liberating without LeBron James on the Lakers
When you have LeBron James on your basketball team, you'd be foolish not to heavily feature James as a ball-handler and center of gravity. The Lakers knew this, which is why they kept featuring LeBron prominently up until his final games with the squad.
In the end, James did accept and embrace a "third option" role in his final season, thereby freeing up Luka Doncic and Reaves to thrive even more so. But even then, we didn't get to see what a full season of the Doncic-Reaves duo looked like without James in the picture at all. The Lakers are excited to see that reality this coming season.
Reaves should be pumped, too. For too long, he's had his touches and usage limited by the presence of two all-time greats. That sentence sounds counterintuitive, but with LeBron in the twilight of his career, Reaves is just as dangerous an on-ball threat offensively right now. He deserves second-option type usage all of the time, and he's about to get that, thanks to James' departure.
Austin Reaves might take another leap in 2026-27
Don't be shocked if Reaves' numbers improve noticeably this coming season and he earns some award recognition because of it. So much of a given player's career in the NBA is based on opportunity, and Reaves hasn't had the full opportunity that he deserves since breaking out over the last season or two.
On the other hand, we should give credit to LeBron for mentoring Reaves, which surely contributed to AR developing in the stellar way that he did. But now it's time for Reaves to thrive without Bron around, and hopefully the Lakers stand to benefit from that situation far more than they miss James in 2026-27.
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