Austin Reaves has arguably been one of the best players in the NBA in this 2025-26 season, but Tom Haberstroh believes the Los Angeles Lakers should part ways with him. While that might seem a ridiculous statement at first, Haberstroh put together a compelling argument on his Substack.
“Saturday was a wakeup call for the Los Angeles Lakers. A 103-88 blowout at the hands of the lowly LA Clippers should raise all of the alarm bells in LakerLand. Forget the 19-8 record. The Lakers aren’t going to go deep in the postseason with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves, and they need to make a move sooner than later.”
Haberstroh says Reaves, Luka Doncic, and LeBron James all deserve better. He states that Reaves should get the chance to be “The Guy,” Doncic should have better defenders and athletes around him, and James shouldn’t be playing extended minutes (35.4 MPG over his last five outings).
While Haberstroh thinks highly of all three of them, he is also of the belief that you can’t win at the highest level with three “all-world-offense-but-please-hide-me-on-defense stars.” You can get the job done with one or two, but not more.
The Lakers don’t have a lot of quality defenders to begin with, and their three big names make them all the worse defensively when they’re on the court. Just how bad are they? Well, Haberstroh had a look at the list of the ten slowest defensive players in the NBA, aka the ones who cover the least ground defensively.
Doncic (3.46) is second, James (3.51) is fourth, and Reaves (3.63) is eighth in average speed defensively. For some more context, the Lakers are the only team with more than one player in the top 10. This is not a recipe for success, and the numbers show that as well.
“Since the Lakers traded for Doncic, their star trio has played 695 minutes on the floor at the same time, per pbpstats.com. It’s 1,406 possessions worth of data. The Lakers are -31 in those minutes, carrying a -2.6 net rating every 100 possessions.”
This is not a small sample size. If we just look at this season, the Lakers have a -5.1 net rating in the 132 minutes in which Doncic, James, and Reaves are all on the court. Will that get better over time? Maybe, but they don’t look like a great fit together.
All of this is why Haberstroh thinks Reaves should be shipped out of town despite averaging 27.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game. As for who he should be traded for, the analyst came up with an intriguing trade with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Proposed Trade Details
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones
New Orleans Pelicans Receive: Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber, 2031 first-round pick (top-4 protected)
This would be quite the move. The Lakers would be getting a premier 3-and-D player in Herb Jones and a pretty good scoring wing in Trey Murphy III.
A player like Jones is exactly what the Lakers need, and he would elevate them significantly on the defensive end. Murphy, meanwhile, is a better defender than Reaves and can replicate his scoring to an extent. Would the Lakers get better with this trade? You can certainly argue they would.
Another option for the Lakers would be exploring whether they can land a superstar like Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks with a package centered around Reaves. That will be difficult, though, as they can only trade one first-round pick this season. They would have to add a lot more value, along with Reaves, to get a player of Antetokounmpo’s caliber.
A move like the one Haberstroh suggested is far more likely. Will the Lakers go this route, though? Well, there haven’t even been any whispers so far about parting with Reaves. The man himself hasn’t given any hints about wanting to leave either.
Reaves told ESPN that he wants to be a Laker and added that he won’t be looking for a gigantic number that doesn’t make sense when he hits free agency in 2026. He is eligible to sign a five-year, $241 million contract, but might be willing to take a hometown discount to stay. As things stand, it looks extremely likely that Reaves will be a Laker beyond this season.
