Despite an early playoff exit, the Lakers still have confidence in the trio of LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves.
After winning just one playoff game this postseason, Lakerland hasn’t had a lot of optimism.
From players to coaches, disappointing performances occurred throughout the organization, with none bigger than the disappearance of the team’s big three featuring LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves.
While this trio was far and away Los Angeles’ best players in the regular season, they all underperformed in the playoffs. Reaves, in particular, was a relative ghost as his production dipped, averaging just 16.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game against the Wolves. His points and assists were well below his regular season averages of 20.2 and 5.8, respectively.
During his exit interview, Reaves was upfront about his lack of production. He still believes that working alongside LeBron and Luka, their synergy will only improve next season.
“Just continuing to grow together,” Reaves said. “Obviously they’re unbelievable basketball players and the more time you spend not with just them but the whole unit, you’re just going to become more cohesive, more together, know exactly what you’re going to do every possession when things get tough, when you’re rolling, how you want to play the game.
“I thought we did a really good job of that in the regular season and we just, like I said, we just didn’t play good enough in this series.” z
While Reaves was arguably the most disappointing player, the trio was collectively lackluster. They had a plus-minus of -24 in their opening round series, seventh worst of any three-player lineup on the roster.
Their offensive rating was 109.4 for the playoffs, a far cry from the 117.8 they had during the regular season and their pace fell from 102.05 to 91.60.
Now, some injuries and illnesses could have contributed to this lack of production. LeBron suffered an MCL sprain late in Game 5, Luka caught a stomach bug that affected him during Game 3 and Austin dealt with a big toe sprain throughout the playoffs.
Still, the tape doesn’t lie, and they didn’t look comfortable or good during this brief postseason stretch.
President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka spoke during his exit interview about this team’s three centerpieces and gave them a glowing vote of confidence.
“The level of confidence in Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luka Dončić is at an all-time high, still,” Pelinka said. “So, no change in how we feel about those three guys [after the playoff defeat]…I think those three guys have incredible promise playing together and we will collectively do a better job to make sure they’re surrounded by the right pieces to have ultimate success.
“We talked at the beginning what ultimate success is here and we’re going to put in the work to allow that group of guys to win a championship.”
Ultimately, a first round exit is a far cry from being title contenders, but the West is always a tough conference.
With a summer to work together, an offseason to build around Luka and JJ Redick getting a full 82 games to maximize potential, it’s not hard to imagine this team getting better purely by running it back with this trio.
Progress isn’t always linear.
The Lakers took steps in the right direction, but have room to improve. Austin has gotten better every season and working alongside Luka and LeBron seems like a great scenario to grow as individuals and as a team.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.