Austin Reaves’ Strong Start Puts Him In Rare Air In NBA History

If I told you that, through five games, the Los Angeles Lakers would have a 3-2 record and be sitting at fifth in the Western Conference standings, you probably wouldn’t be that surprised. With LeBron James and the newly skinny Luka Doncic, Los Angeles boasts the top-end firepower to hang with the big dogs.

But that’s the funny thing about all of this. So far, James has yet to make his season debut (because of an injury he suffered late in the offseason), and Doncic has been limited to two games with a left finger sprain and lower left leg contusion.

Instead, it has been Austin Reaves – the third musketeer in this potent three-headed dragon – who has carried the slack for his two fallen comrades, leading the Lakers to a 2-1 record over their last three games.

Austin Reaves Is Off To A Historic Start

Even when Doncic was in the lineup, Reaves was balling out, averaging 25.5 PPG and 10 APG through two contests. But since Doncic went down, Reaves has ripped off a 51-point game, a 41-point game, and a 28-point, 16-assist game (that ended with a game-winning floater) in consecutive order.

Overall, Doncic is averaging 34.2 PPG/5.6 RPG/10 APG to start the season. According to the good people at Stathead, only one other player has started the season with a 34/5/10 stat line in their first five games of the year, and that was Russell Westbrook in 2016-17 – aka his historic triple-double season where he took home the league MVP award.

The best part about what Reaves is doing is that he’s been a lot more efficient than Westbrook was back then. He’s shooting a higher percentage from three, which, to be fair, is expected considering Westbrook has never been a great outside shooter, but he’s also converting on a higher rate of his twos. Overall, Reaves’ true shooting percentage (68.7%) is 14.4% higher than the one Westbrook had during this span (54.3%).

On top of that, Reaves is making a lot less money than Westbrook was that season. In 2016-17, Westbrook was making $26.5 million. Meanwhile, this year, the Lakers are paying Reaves just $13.9 million (per Spotrac). The disparity gets even wilder when you adjust for inflation, as Reaves is only being paid 9.01% of the salary cap, while Westbrook was earning 28.2% of it at that time.

Austin Reaves Is Taking Another Leap

Reaves first burst onto the scene as a legit starting caliber player in 2022-23, when he nearly doubled his PPG and APG from the prior season while also increasing his efficiency by nearly nine percentage points. However, given how old he was when he entered the league (he was 23 in his rookie season), most people expected that he would reach his ceiling as a player rather quickly.

It is worth noting that Reaves has consistently shown the ability to increase his scoring and playmaking volume when his co-stars are on the bench. Last season, with James, Doncic, and Anthony Davis off the floor (when he was still with the team), Reaves averaged 30.2 points and 8.6 assists per 100 possessions (per PBP Stats). The Lakers were a +6.9 in those minutes.

Reaves has always been a very good three-level scorer, and he wields the kind of functional handle that lets him get to his spots on the court against nearly any kind of defense. But what he was doing last year was in short bursts. Five or six-minute increments where he could take the keys to the car and drive it around before returning it to the lot and riding shotgun next to his future Hall-of-Fame teammates. Through the last three games, though, Reaves has been Los Angeles’ only primary creator. Every time he’s on the court, he’s the focal point of the defensive scouting report. All eyes are on him, and that hasn’t seemed to faze him, not even in the slightest.

Even when the Lakers get healthy, they will probably want to let James take his foot off the gas and conserve his body for the postseason, especially now that they know with absolute certainty what Reaves is capable of doing as a lone star on the court. So, while Reaves won’t continue to put up Westbrook-ian numbers for the entire season, he should still be a 20+ PPG scorer on high efficiency the rest of the way. And given his incredible platform in Los Angeles, that should be enough to get him his first All-Star nomination.

Another variable to keep tabs on here is the Most Improved Player of the Year race. Historically, this award typically goes to a player who has seen a drastic increase in their per-game scoring. If Reaves continues to be a high 20 PPG game scorer, he will surely get some consideration. According to FanDuel, Reaves’ odds to win the award are currently at +1800. That may be worth placing a wager on for those who are interested in the NBA futures market.

For now, let’s continue to marvel at Reaves’ historic start and see how long he can keep on rolling at such an absurd level.