Great night for the Lakers and the brightest for Austin Reeves this season. I am more persuaded to keep Reaves on the team. Let him grow and exempt him from any bargains. Because Lakers officials desire to get new players to help Lebron and Davis.
I am happy that the Los Angeles Lakers squad was able to win without Davis and Lebron. But seriously, what a poor Celtics performance. Even though it is still the regular season, some fans will doubt the ability of Tatum and Brown to lead the team through difficult times.
There was no rumor that Reaves will be traded, in fact the rumor was they will keep him but will trade D'Lo. You can see the maturity in his game, he doesn't panic and make some fancy moves, he's just doing the basic and follow the coache's plays. I'm sure he wasn't included in the team USA roster if he doesn't have the potentila, this kid is still young, he improve his skills in LA, keeping him and giving him more time to improve, he'll become more consistent eventually in the future.
He does not have a big contract like Russell and the kid has great potential, so there are no big rumors to transfer him. In any case, the public knows that Lakers officials want to bring one more superstar into the team to aid Lebron and Davis. Reaves could undoubtedly turn out to be essential for the deals realizing Russell is inferior to trade with a superstar, for instance, Dejounte Murray and Zach LaVine. And it is not new for Lakers officials to surrender potential players when Lebron James joined them. They can hardly wait, and they need to win now. But it is acceptable the fact that Lebron is going old but is playing great and they need to take advantage of the situation while it is there.
It's obvious that Lebron James is getting old, it might not show it right now, but we all know that him getting injured frequently, is a sign that he has just a couple of years left in him, and most likely waiting for his son to join the NBA before he retires. As for Reaves, it is also evident that he is the next offensive options for them. And now that Lebron and AD is out, he took matters in his own hand and lead them in both end of the court, playing defense and then scoring 30+ or more. This game might stop the trade rumors surround D'Lo or any other Lakers as this is a big morale win for them. Nevertheless, time is ticking, Murray and Lavine might still be in the Lakers radar, maybe one of them will join AD and Lebron.
I think that LeBron injury is nothing close to serious, maybe just a type of injury he could carry on when he was younger, but yeah he's getting old and he gradually losses everything he can do in his prime, especially that ability where he can carry a whole team to the finals.
Anyway, I hope the Lakers won't send Reaves or DLo away now, I mean they can build a better team around them because LeBron and AD will probably not gonna last a couple more years with the Lakers. LeBron will eventually retire and AD will probably play for his hometown and retire there.
The current Laker team doesn't really need the trade, they just need consistency. I even doubt a trade would make any difference. That win against the Celtics without AD and Bron was just one of those games the Lakers usually plays, the only difference is, they are shooting at a higher percentage. If they could shoot like that consistently, they would easily be in the top 3.