Aloha,
Watching Austin perform at such a high level really makes me wonder if he is poised to become the Lakers coveted 3rd star. Certainly Coaches Ham and Kerr believe he can.
Austin kind of reminds me of Manu Ginobili. He was the Spurs 3rd star. They both are big guards, high I.Q 2 way players. Austin is scoring at the same clip as Manu did. While Manu only made 2 all star games, he rode his overall game all the way to the hall of fame. Austin is showing the same game as Manu. The only question is, can he sustain it as teams focus on him. He is such a smart player, that I have little doubt that he will continue to excel.
I see all of these trade proposals for star players. They are almost all primarily scorers. The question is as a 3rd scorer on the Lakers, how much will they be able to score? I doubt they would score at the same clip they have as a 1st option. Is a pure scorer more valuable than a versatile 2 way player? I don’t believe it is.
A good example is Zach LaVine, a popular trade target with the media and bloggers. He averaged a little over 24 points a game last year. Would he duplicate that playing with the Lakers? A popular trade is DLO and Rui for LaVine plus’s picks and young players. Is Zach worth it when we have Austin? Dlo averaged 17 a game. Rui didn’t score as well in the regular season as he had with the Wizards. But he averaged 13 a game for his career and I’m confident that he will at least get that this season. He also a versatile defender and rebounds.
Now one of the big reasons folks want to trade DLO is because of his defense. Yet Zach has a career defensive rating of 113.9 while DLO’s is 113.6. So in essence by trading of LaVine, you get 6 points less a game and poorer defense for his 40 mil salary. Why would you do that when you have Austin and Rui?
When you examine most of these trade scenarios it usually the same. They generally are scorers. When you weigh what you give up against what you gain, we generally lose in the end with these trades.
I believe we already have a 3rd star. His name is Austin Reeves.