Because he really hasnt been playing well

I think the expectation is that he would carry non luka minutes and he is doing terrible at that. Most of his scoring comes when luka is on the court which does help but not as much.

But one thing he seems to be good at is getting clutch buckets in 4th Quarter. I would be interested to see his efficiency in 4th qtr vs other

Every time Luka sits, the other players led by Austin fuck up whatever lead he’s helped create. LA should’ve won this game by 15 but Reaves and Colin Sexton’s stupidity let the Blazers straight back into the game many times. To be fair, Luka didn’t help with those two stupid turnovers in Q4. But still. AR gets most of his points when Doncic is on the floor facilitating for him.

Austin in a vacuum isn’t trash by a long shot but whenever he’s tasked with protecting a lead that Luka has created he fails.

He’s had some rough games with a lot of turnovers, and he’s struggled in the non-Luka minutes. He’s still been solid overall and he’s been a great second option when Luka’s on the court.

A lot of the criticism just comes down to the fact that Lakers haven’t found a good answer to finding consistent offense when Luka isn’t on the Court so Reaves gets the blame.

If you watch the games, whenever Luka sits and he’s the primary scorer he’s has struggled a lot. Turnovers, poor shot attempts, not creating a lot of good looks for teammates. And although he gives effort he’s not a positive defender.

He’s obviously a good player, but for what he’s earning he needs to help the bench maintain leads better.

He went on a rampage with turnovers in the earlier games but he cleaned that up and some passivity

He’s either been lights out or bad. So it averages out. Like when he’s on he literally hasn’t missed

It’s mostly his dribbling. He has lost control of the ball a shocking amount of times. If he tightens that up, he’ll be much better.

These are the best numbers hes ever put up lol.

Reaves started off last season averaging 29/7/5 on 52/37/88% splits over his first 19 games.

This is not even remotely close to being the best numbers he has put up over a stretch of games

Because the bench unit he plays with has been ass lol. Teams just try to shut him down.

Sexton and Grimes need to do better.

His turnovers have been ass, he rectified that, but now his shooting splits went down. We need some complete games. The non luka minutes will be fixed, sexton has been the culprit taking the ball and not having AR be in rhythm. AR is a rhythm scorer and needs the ball way more. Sexton can play offball so I’m not sure what’s going on with that but I have faith AR will get out of this slump

If you actually watch his game, he’s been struggling a lot lately. Including this game

Many Laker fans don’t understand what a blessing it is to have a second option that truly compliments the main star and lets the main star do whatever they want. So many basketball players would have a fit with only taking 15-18 shots a night! But Austin comes from a role player mentality and he’s always trying to set up his team..he’s had wonky lineups in the non Luka minutes, he’s trying to integrate sexton in these minutes, I swear anytime he gets a paint touch and kick out nobody can make a shot in his lineups

It will even out, he’ll have loud games when it calls for. He was great down the stretch of this game imo, fantastic defense and big buckets.

Reaves is easily criticized because he’s the next man up, and the player he’s trying to cover for is Luka. So the standard is high. Very, very high.

Ive come to the realization that hes the best when hes not setting up the offense and trying to be a playmaker. Just being a pure scorer is where hes absolutely lethal and one of the best in the game. Problem is when luka is off the floor, lakers have no other option and when he is forced to be the point guard he does look trash. Its more of lakers doesnt have a good backup pg.

Turnovers + defense? Only things I can think of

These were the same people who thought Caruso was overrated until he left the Lakers.

Then suddenly they discovered a hidden gem.

Any team would be lucky to have AR.

Watch the games.

It doesn’t matter he’s trash or not. Luka wants to play with him

He clutched up tonight. He hasn’t been consistent enough though.

Wouldn’t say trash but in the Lakers games I’ve watched this season he didn’t play well.

Teams with good perimeter defense can slow him down quite easily, especially with the refs not giving the offense questionable calls anymore.

He’s had a bad TO problem this season and he hasn’t been able to lead the bench lineups so far… but he’s been good could just be better

Pretty bad start for him by the eye test. He need to clean up his TO. He is far away from his peak last year. Season is young though.

The problem is he suddenly lose the power to play non Luka minutes.He’s still efficient when pairing with Luka,But the expectation for him this season is to be the second guy of Lakers, holding/winning the minutes without Luka

Luka(40) and Reaves(23) are looking exactly parallel to Jordan (30) and Pippen(19) scoring. Luka is carrying more rebounds and assists than Austin where that was reversed for the bulls. A team with this kind of core can win championships. But it takes more than just the core. Kessler seems to be the real deal, too.

He’s averaging 4 turnovers per game without the shot/assist volume to justify it. Turnover efficiency is probably the most underrated thing in basketball and it’s part of why he has a negative BPM rn

Check his turn overs