Austin Reaves didn’t waste much time making his all-time starting five feel personal.
During a recent appearance on Pardon My Take, the Los Angeles Lakers guard laid out his picks, and the lineup came with a few expected names, a couple of eyebrow-raisers, and one omission that will definitely get people talking.
Reaves started with Stephen Curry at point guard, a choice that makes plenty of sense given the way Curry has reshaped the league with his shooting. Reaves has gone up against him enough to know exactly how dangerous he is. At shooting guard, he went with Kobe Bryant, which fits perfectly for someone who has never hidden his admiration for the Lakers icon.
At small forward, Reaves chose LeBron James, another pick that tracks considering how highly he thinks of his former teammate. Then came the surprise: Reaves put himself in the lineup instead of Michael Jordan. And at center, he went with Shaquille O’Neal, the kind of pick that’s hard to argue with when you’re talking about sheer dominance.
There are other obvious center choices out there - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Hakeem Olajuwon - but O’Neal’s mix of power, size, speed and touch makes a strong case all by itself. Reaves’ list leaves out Luka Doncic, even with the Lakers now set up to keep Reaves alongside Doncic moving forward.
That future is locked in after the Lakers secured Reaves on a four-year, $185 million contract, ending the offseason speculation about whether another team might step in with the deal he wanted. For the Lakers, it was one of the key priorities of the summer.
Now Reaves is spending the offseason enjoying himself while also moving deeper into his prime, with a chance to keep building his place in Lakers history. The next step is obvious: chasing another championship banner at Crypto.com Arena with Doncic in the picture for the foreseeable future.
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The problem for Ayton has always been the same one that has followed him around his career: the good stretches have not come often enough. His value has been shaped as much by inconsistency as by production, which is part of why the Lakers moved on and why Reaves comments reopened a memory that still stings for Rockets fans who watched Ayton tilt that matchup before the rest of the postseason went sideways. [Read more 🡒]