Sacrificing Austin Reaves Could Change Everything For Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers didn't have the deep run in the playoffs that they were hoping for after trading for Luka Doncic. Doncic was supposed to give the Lakers an extra scoring punch to possibly win an NBA championship.

Instead, they were bounced by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. Their defensive flaws were exposed as they attacked Doncic on almost every play.

Shooting guard Austin Reaves had a bad postseason, as well. The scoring punch that he was supposed to provide just wasn't there. In fact, he was almost invisible in some of the games they played against Minnesota.

If the Lakers want to make a deeper run in the playoffs next season, they might have to sacrifice Reaves for the greater good. It's not that Reaves is particularly bad, either.

As Bleacher Report points out, the way the team is constructed, they would benefit more from having a better defender in the starting lineup than it would be to keep Reaves as a scorer.

With the way the rest of the roster is put together, they need to either get a good perimeter defender or a rim-protecting center to help the Lakers out defensively.

LeBron James is not the same defender he used to be. Doncic has never proven to be interested in playing defense in his career, so it would be shocking if he started next year. Jaxon Hayes doesn't protect the rim very well.

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Reaves isn't a good defender either, so that leaves four out of the five starters as bad defenders. As they saw against Minnesota, they have to be better defensively to compete at the highest level.

The Lakers don't have many options to acquire a good defender besides trading Reaves. His contract is very attractive to other teams, so they should be able to find a robust market for them.

There's always a chance that the Lakers decide to keep Reaves and just try to get a center who can help protect the rim. The issue for them is that there aren't many like that hitting free agency this summer.

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