Speaking to the media following the Lakers’ 122-119 win over the Suns on Friday, Lakers coach Darvin Ham shed some light on his decision to move trusted guard Austin Reaves to the bench in favor of Cam Reddish. Ham compared Reaves’ current role to that of Mani Ginobili on the old Spurs’ teams from the 2000s.
“Everyone knew Manu [Ginobili] was a starter – it was more about balancing the units. [Austin] still played 35 minutes,” Ham said. “His minutes weren’t going to go down; he’s gonna finish the game. He was huge down the stretch.”
Young Lakers guard Austin Reaves has been impressive in his stint with the Lakers but he’s been struggling to start the 2023-24 campaign. This week, Darvi nHam finally had enough of Austin’s struggles and moved him to the secondary unit with hopes of easing him back into form. In 35 minutes, Reaves finished his arguably his best performance of the season: 15 points and 7 assists on 54% shooting.
Manu Ginobili Is An NBA Legend
When it comes to being a productive bench player, there may be no greater example than Manu Ginobili, who won four championships during his run with the San Antonio Spurs. Despite being among the most elite scoring guards in the league at the time, he happily accepted a bench role for the Spurs, and he found great success doing it. After 16 years in the league, he retired in 2018 as a 4x champion, Sixth Man of the Year in 2018, 2x All-Star, and 2x All-NBA player.
Today, Manu is widely respected and revered for his selfless approach to the game and he set the standard for all other sixth man who came after him. In the case of Austin Reaves, he hasn’t shown nearly the same consistency or reliability as Manu did but he can get to that level with continued persistence and a lot of hard work. The key to success for Reaves will be embracing the role off the bench, which many players are just unable to handle nowadays.
Lakers In Full Desperation Mode
The Lakers came into Friday’s game at 3-5 on the season and they wanted to avoid digging a deeper hole this early on. Cutting Reaves from the starting lineup was just the latest change by Darvin Ham, who had been desperately looking for answers on how to maximize the supporting cast. Besides LeBron and some flashes from Anthony Davis, Lakers players have not delivered their share this season and that includes Austin Reaves.
But if he can follow up his big game on Friday with another banger, it could re-affirm the Lakers’ confidence in his abilities. Plus, with Cam Reddish looking like a solid fit with the starting unit, we could see Ham test this new rotation for at least a few more games. If anything, these moves tell us that the Lakers are still very much a team trying to figure things out. But, for better or worse, the Lakers’ success hinges greatly on Austin Reaves. If he delivers another good season, it could set the stage for another inspiring run in April and May. If not, it could set them off-course for what was supposed to be a season or redemption.
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