Anthony Irwin of Lakers Daily has reported that former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham desired for Austin Reaves to serve a role similar to the one that Donte DiVincenzo has played in recent years, which entails being a disruptive defender and capable perimeter shooter.
“Such a leap should’ve happened last year, but Reaves and Ham never quite saw eye to eye, according to sources,” Irwin wrote. “Over the course of the season, the two were never openly adversarial with each other, but neither party was particularly warm about the other, either. Ham wanted to pigeonhole Reaves into a gritty, defense-first, shooting role (think Donte DiVincenzo), but Reaves, well, isn’t Donte DiVincenzo.”
Ham coached Reaves for the second and third seasons of his pro career after Frank Vogel was Los Angeles’ head coach in his rookie season, the 2021-22 campaign. The 26-year-old improved quite a bit by the time Ham’s stint in Los Angeles came to an end, but the 51-year-old’s belief that Reaves should’ve served a defense-first role stands out as controversial, considering Reaves hasn’t been a very impactful player on that end of the floor so far in the NBA.
However, Reaves checks one of the two boxes Ham wanted him to check in the sense that he can space the floor. He shot 36.7 percent from 3-point range on 5.1 attempts per game during the 2023-24 regular season. But Reaves brings so much more to the table on the offensive side of the ball outside of merely his shooting chops.
Namely, he has evolved into a very effective secondary playmaker for the Lakers. He averaged a career-high 5.5 assists per game, which marked the most of any player on the storied franchise not named LeBron James or D’Angelo Russell.
On top of that, he made the most of his scoring opportunities in the paint in his third season in the NBA. On 177 total shot attempts at the rim, 143 found the bottom of the net, which equates to a phenomenal 80.8 percent clip.
Reaves had a lot of responsibility on the offensive side of the ball in Ham’s final season coaching the team, and perhaps he will have an even larger role on that end now that the Lakers have a new head coach in J.J. Redick.
Los Angeles might need Reaves to take that next step as a player if the team wants to contend for a title next season. The Lakers were booted in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs and have a largely similar roster with the start of the regular season less than a month away.
