Austin Reaves is one of those rare success stories when a players enters the NBA undrafted but manages to earn himself a spot and even becomes a key player for his team.
The 24-year-old sophomore has been starting for the Lakers as of late and is averaging 22 points per game over the last four games. His superstar teammate LeBron James was asked if Reaves is exceeding his expectations.
“I didn’t expectations for him,” James said about Reaves. “When you get an undrafted guy on your roster, you don’t have much expectations for him.
“I knew the player we were getting because, like I said, I did watch a lot of film on him and seen his ability to play the point, play off the ball.
“He had a high basketball IQ, being able either make plays for himself of find open guys I could just see the IQ working every time he was playing the game at Oklahoma.
“Once he got to us and coach [Frank] Vogel threw him in the fire right away or early on, you could see that he was capable of playing at this level for long time. It was no surprise for me.”
This season Reaves is averaging 12.9 points, 3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 28.7 minutes per game.
