LeBron James Sparks Austin Reaves Trade Rumors With Surprise New Comments https://t.co/FKbtjDO8Cq— LakerTom (@LakerTom) May 9, 2025
eBron James Sparks Austin Reaves Trade Rumors With Surprise New Comments
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May 9, 2025 1 Comment
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FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:
LeBron James sparked some controversy on Thursday after comments he made on his Mind the Game Podcast with Steve Nash. In reference to the Timberwolves series, James said, “I’ve learned over the years that teams win championships.. Always.. I don’t lose sleep over that like, ‘F***, how did me and Luka lose?’ Well, there are eight other guys on the floor.”
There’s a lot to unpack here, as it does come off like James is throwing his teammates under the bus a little bit. He also failed to include Austin Reaves in the grouping of himself alongside Luka Doncic, indicating that he views Reaves as still more of a complementary piece than a true star.
Austin Reaves is coming off a five-game playoff series where he averaged 16 PPG on 41% from the field and just 32% from three. He wasn’t terrible offensively, but wasn’t great either. Factor in the reality that he is a liability on defense, and it wasn’t a great playoff series from him. Still, Lebron and Luka Doncic weren’t great on both ends every night, either and deserve much of the blame for the series loss.
Ignoring the Wolves series, a Reaves trade does make some sense for Rob Pelinka if the plan is to build around LeBron and Luka for next season. First of all, Reaves’ trade value will likely never be higher coming off a career year where he averaged 20.2 PPG on elite efficiency while averaging a career-high 5.8 assists per game.
Given the fact that Austin Reaves is turning 27 on May 29, it is unlikely he will get significantly better than what he is right now, given his athletic limitations on defense.
The second reason why a Reaves trade makes sense is the reality that he doesn’t fit great next to LeBron James and Luka Doncic. This is not a knock on Reaves. The reality is that a 41-year-old LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves-led team is just not going to be good enough defensively to compete for a title. Unless you can find a way to put a Rudy Gobert/Draymond Green level rim-protector behind them, they will not be able to consistently get stops over 16 playoff games in route to a title.