Los Angeles Lakers undrafted guard Austin Reaves drew massive praise from a rival executive as he continues his star turn this season.
“He’s the best undrafted player since Ben Wallace, and that guy’s a Hall of Famer,” a Western Conference executive told ESPN.
Wallace was a four-time NBA All-Star and a four-time Defensive Player of the Year who won a championship in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons, the last team to win a title without a top-10 player on its roster.
Ironically, Wallace and the Pistons beat a Lakers squad led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in the 2004 NBA Finals.
That’s a tough act to follow for Reaves, 26, given they play different positions. There are so many great guards in the league today. But his rise from a two-way contract into the Lakers’ third-best player behind sure-fire future Hall of Famers LeBron James and Anthony Davis and later on Luka Dončić has been a game-changer for the franchise.
They now have a player who has the potential to become the third or second-best player of a championship team without costing them heavy draft capital or a marquee name.
All they have to do is to pay him for them to keep him.
Austin Reaves on Lakers GM’s Mind During Luka Trade Talks
Rob Pelinka, the Lakers vice president and general manager, weighed heavily on the implication of acquiring Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks to Reaves’ continued growth. But he concluded that adding another ball-dominant guard in the backcourt would not stunt Reaves, but instead, they would find a way to make it work.
“You bet on the fact that he plays the game the right way, his teammates love to play with him,” Pelinka told NBA.com. “You bet on the fact that he’s an ultimate competitor. You bet on the fact that he absolutely loves basketball and wants to get better all the time. I don’t even like to put a ceiling on a player like that, just let his journey be what his journey is.
“But even going back to the time of doing the big trade that we made, bringing in Luka, I had Austin in my head that whole month I was going through that transaction. Because he’s a Swiss Army knife, he can play really in any environment with any player; he thinks the game, sees the game at a high level, and it allows him to play so well with Luka and LeBron.”
Over his last 15 games, Reaves averaged 25.5 points on 51/42/94 shooting split, 5.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals. For the season, Reaves is averaging 20.2 points on a 46/37/88 shooting split, 5.8 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals.
Reaves also became the first Lakers player in franchise history to total at least 15 3-pointers over a two-game span.
Austin Reaves becomes the first Lakers player in franchise history to total 15+ 3PM over a 2-game span. https://t.co/6eJZgvG9wa pic.twitter.com/yQB0qSp0W6
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) April 5, 2025
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What made the historic feat more impressive is he did it on back-to-back nights.
Reaves hit six 3s against the Pelicans after making nine against the Golden State Warriors on the previous night. The Lakers’ rising star finished with 30 points on an efficient 8-of-13 shooting and seven assists. He was a game-high plus-17 on the floor.
“It’s special,” Reaves told reporters about his historic feat. “LeBron throws me good passes. Luka throws me good passes and I just shoot it. I just shoot them with confidence. That’s really it but it’s special.”
Kobe-esque Play
Reaves became the first Lakers player since the late Kobe Bryant in 2012 to average at least 25 points on 50/40-90 shooting split over any 10-game span, per StatMamba.
Over a 10-game span after the Lakers beat the New Orleans Pelicans last week, Reaves averaged 25.3 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 53.5% from the field, 40.7% from beyond the arc, and 94.1% from the free-throw line.
