There should be no doubt in anyone's mind about the future of the Los Angeles Lakers revolving around Luka Doncic. The point of contention comes in whether Austin Reaves is the running mate capable of giving Doncic his best chance at success in Hollywood.
Some have hesitated to get behind that idea. For their part, the Lakers certainly have not given any indication of being among those backing off that duo as their leading act. Doncic clearly likes playing with Reaves, and the rumored plan has been to build around those two for a while.
Moving beyond the surface-level questions about the defense in the backcourt and otherwise, there are definitive numbers to back up why this is the right approach. Doncic and Reaves thrived as a two-man combo for the Lakers in 2025-26.
Los Angeles had 11 pairs of players share the court for at least 1000 minutes this season. The duo who had the strongest net rating of the bunch? That would be Doncic and Reaves, who registered a mark of 8.9 in that category.
The numbers behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves leave very little doubt
The only other pairing to have played 1000 minutes who came particularly close to Doncic and Reaves in their success rate was Luka and Marcus Smart. Those two posted a net rating of 7.7 together in 2025-26. Beyond that, the next closest pairing had a mark of 3.4 in the category.
To find a duo that outdoes Doncic and Reaves, the Lakers would need to shave over 250-plus minutes off the minimum requirements. Smart and Rui Hachimura played 744 minutes together, posting a surprisingly high net rating of 11.7.
All of this is to say that Doncic and Reaves have been proven as effective together. Despite that, let us briefly entertain some of the main critiques.
One crowd will say the pair do not work together on the back end. Despite those concerns, Doncic and Reaves posted a very respectable defensive rating of 109.6 on the floor together in 2025-26.
Others will say Reaves cannot get it done in the NBA Playoffs. The problem with that assessment is the lack of data available for playing alongside Doncic.
In the 2025 playoff run, Luka was clearly not at his best due to the after effects of the trade away from the Dallas Mavericks, skewing any takeaways. In 2026, Reaves' struggles happened while Doncic was absent from the postseason altogether.
Any critiques of Reaves as a playoff performer are incomplete, at best. There is no good data to analyze with relation to him being Doncic's second in command.
There may be concerns with handing Reaves the type of money he is projected for during the summer. However, as far as the numbers go, AR's functionality playing off Doncic has very little room for debate. That is before the Lakers have been able to remold the roster around the duo, too. That should offer plenty of optimism toward why the star pairing can and will work.
Add us as a preferred source on Google