Los Angeles Lakers rookie Austin Reaves joins a team ready to compete for a championship and the former Oklahoma guard is eager to get to work and learn from his veteran teammates.
Reaves, who went undrafted, signed a two-way contract with the Lakers last month after a solid showing in the Las Vegas Summer League. He averaged 7.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in five games on 32.8% shooting from the field.
He will split his time this season between the Lakers and NBA G League but the opportunity to learn from LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and others figures to help his development immensely.
Reaves really likes the opportunity to play with James this season.
“The IQ that he has is off the charts,” Reaves said, via Mike Trudell of Lakers.com. “There’s not much else you can say. It’s LeBron, arguably the best player ever. It’s going to be fun just to be around him and four or five other potential Hall of Famers on the team. It’s a great opportunity to go in and just learn. All of them are high IQ guys, done a lot of things and been real successful, so it’s going to be super fun.”
[mm-video type=video id=01fehxz1mg03gx21a2ws playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f1jxkahtwnvzepyp image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fehxz1mg03gx21a2ws/01fehxz1mg03gx21a2ws-65f47998a97b70226ded1453737b54f3.jpg]
Reaves averaged 18.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists in 25 games with the Sooners last season, earning All-Big 12 first-team honors. He led the conference in free throws made (147) and ranked fifth in true shooting percentage (.579).
The chance to join the Lakers should be highly beneficial for Reaves this season as L.A. figures to compete for a championship. His development should be worth monitoring throughout the season.
This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[lawrence-related id=37596,35986,33493]
[listicle id=36125]