What did we learn about Austin Reaves in the playoffs?

After a sensational regular season, Austin Reaves struggled in the playoffs. It revealed some glaring roster holes the Lakers need to solve this summer.

As they enter a crucial offseason, the Lakers face some tough decisions regarding how best to support their superstars, Luka Dončić and LeBron James. The most critical decision will center on Austin Reaves, whose playoff performance fell short of his regular-season production, revealing issues the team needs to address this offseason.

Reaves is extension-eligible this summer, which he is unlikely to sign, leaving the Lakers with the decision to wait until next summer when he can become an unrestricted free agent or to pursue a trade.

The Lakers signed Reaves as an undrafted guard four years ago and he has improved every single season. This past year, he made a significant leap from the role player tier into a fringe star.

Even after acquiring Dončić, Reaves continued to excel. Following the trade, Reaves averaged 22.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists while shooting 38.9% from beyond the arc. During that time, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were the only other players in the league to reach those numbers with equal or greater 3-point efficiency.

In the postseason, Reaves struggled to find the mark from outside, shooting just 31.9% for the five-game series. Not shooting well happens, as the best players routinely go through rough shooting stretches.

The primary concern for LA was how they were being defended, as well as the offense they used to counter it. The Lakers faced a team with multiple bigs and physicality at every position, taking full advantage of LA’s lack of size and rim threat.

It turned players like Reaves, who are already athletically challenged, into jump shooters against talented ball-pressure defenders. Watch in the clip below as he catches a pass in the corner with Anthony Edwards smothering him. Rudy Gobert is parked in the paint and Reaves is forced to throw up a fading shot that hits the side of the backboard.

The Lakers’ small ball group was leaned on for its offensive five-out spacing, but it devolved into one-on-one basketball. That played against the strength of Reaves, who relied more on a traditional big man threat as a screen partner.

Watch below as Reaves is hounded by one of the best on-ball defenders in the league, Jaden McDaniels, and is forced into a difficult step-back three that misses.

In the postseason, 64% of Reaves’ attempts came from 3-point range, a significant increase from 51% during the regular season. This increase has a domino effect, not only on scoring efficiency, but it also makes it much more challenging to draw fouls when most attempts are from the perimeter.

In the regular season, Reaves averaged five free throw attempts per game, but during the playoffs, that number dropped to 1.4.

Reaves relies on the mid-range attack against drop coverages and putting players in jail — pinning a defender on his back — to score or draw whistles inside the arc. Those shots are completely removed without a dynamic screener to partner with in the half-court.

LA will need to find more dynamic ways to use its three offensive stars. Reaves looked best during the series when running off of off-ball screens, like this crunch time basket shown below.

Here, he comes off a brush screen by LeBron and pops out for the open look.

These actions were rare as many possessions placed Dončić, James, and Reaves against a fully connected Minnesota defense and featured lots of isolation basketball.

LA needs to find more ways for two or even all three players to work together, enhancing their skills as threats instead of relying on isolation plays where two players sit on the sidelines watching.

On the defensive end, he was part of the rotating carousel that the Wolves exploited for mismatches. The lack of size was a disadvantage there, too, as without a rim protector to erase defensive mistakes, the Lakers struggled on that side.

Reaves needed to play better for the Lakers to have any shot of winning this type of series. It was also reported that he dealt with a toe injury. How much of that impacted his play, we will never know.

That being said, judging his entire future based on these five games would be a mistake, as he has already demonstrated the ability to rise to any high-leverage game occasion in his short career so far, including past playoff series.

The Lakers recognize this as well, as a trade for Reaves is expected to yield a significant return if moved. The playoffs did not eliminate the notion of Reaves’ fit long term, but they revealed the need for real roster upgrades to reach the championship level they hope to envision.

Playback

We will be live on Playback on Thursday to discuss Reaves, among other Lakers, as we continue our series of season review streams. Be sure to join!