Austin Reaves says the Lakers’ offense is about to look a lot different.
That’s the clearest takeaway from his comments at Lakers Media Day, where he laid out a vision for a team that won’t be chained to the same repeated action every trip down the floor. After a summer that brought major roster change, Los Angeles enters the 2026-27 season with a new cast and, Reaves believes, a new way of attacking defenses.
“I think, just being able to be versatile in what we’re going to do every single possession. We’re going to be able to do different things this year that we were not capable of doing last year.
We’re going to be able to play more, I think, free-flowing basketball, and it’s not going to have to be pick-and-roll every single possession. So, we’re going to implement a good offense, and we’re going to move the ball side to side and get teams to rotate.”
That’s a notable shift in tone for a Lakers team that leaned heavily on Luka Doncic and LeBron James as the main playmakers last season, with Reaves often serving as the go-to scorer when the offense needed a bucket. The formula had its moments in the regular season, but when one of those key pieces was out, the production dipped hard.
The numbers tell the story. Los Angeles finished the regular season with a 117.0 offensive rating, good for 10th in the NBA, and averaged 116.3 points per game, 11th in the league.
But the pace was slow at 99.2 possessions per game, one of the lowest marks in the NBA. That problem got worse in the playoffs, when the pace fell to 93.5 possessions per game and the offensive rating slid to 108.1.
A big reason the pick-and-roll didn’t fully carry the load was the lack of production from Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes. The addition of Walker Kessler should help there, at least some, but Reaves’ comments suggest the Lakers are aiming for something broader than just a better screen game.
JJ Redick recently said the Lakers finally have pieces that fit together, and that’s where the real promise seems to lie. With guards like Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton in the mix, Los Angeles has more ball-handling and scoring options behind Doncic and Reaves. The wing group also gives them more to work with, with Sandro Mamukelashvili, Jake LaRavia, Ziaire Williams, and Matisse Thybulle all offering ways to space the floor and keep the ball moving.
The Doncic-Kessler pick-and-roll still looks like a major weapon, and it figures to stay in the playbook. But the bigger point is that the Lakers now have enough shooting and depth to do more than lean on one staple possession after another.
That matters for a team trying to chase title contention with a completely new look. It also matters for Reaves, who will be trying to back up his $180 million price tag while building on last season’s averages of 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game.
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