Austin Reaves Talks How Lakers Can Get Back Into Championship Contention And His Debut In American Century Golf Tournament

Third-year man Austin Reaves is a key part of the Los Angeles Lakers’ future.

The 6-foot-5 shooting guard is coming off of his best season to date as he continues to solidify himself as the Lakers’ third option behind their star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The 26-year-old averaged 15.9 points, 5.5 assists and 4.3 assists per game — all career highs — while starting 57 of the team’s 82 games.

However, the Lakers struggled to replicate their postseason success of the previous year, as they were eliminated in the first round by the Denver Nuggets for the second consecutive year. During the previous season, the Lakers pulled off upsets over the No. 2-seeded Memphis Grizzlies and defending champion Golden State Warriors before falling to the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.

While speaking to reporters on a Zoom call in anticipation of his debut in the 35th annual American Century Golf Championship this July, I asked Reaves what the Lakers need to do in order to return to being a yearly championship contender. The young guard stressed that growing a system built around the star duo of James and Davis is key.

Reaves pointed towards how top teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks have systems built in place around their young star players.

“It’s a tough question because it’s such a tough league,” Reaves said. “There’s so many teams that are growing, you see like the OKCs, the Minnesotas and obviously the two teams that are left, young teams that have been together for a while and learned to play in a system around one another. I feel like that’s something you need in any sport you play, like consistency in basically a system and just growing that with what we have, obviously Bron and AD is a very special duo to have, but just growing a system around those two to basically help in whatever they need and then playing around them.”

The Lakers will be searching for a new head coach after firing Darvin Ham after just two seasons. That means Los Angeles will be in search of its third head coach in two years after parting ways with Frank Vogel after the 2021-22 season.

At the current moment, former NBA shooting guard and current ESPN analyst JJ Redick appears to be a favorite for the job. Redick also happens to have a close relationship with James, whom he hosts a podcast with.

While Redick obviously had a long career in the NBA — he played 15 seasons as a key role player on most of those teams — he doesn’t have any coaching experience.

Via Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports:

“Charania cited sources declaring that the Lakers have become ‘infatuated’ with Redick during their coaching search,” writes Owens. “During its search, the franchise has been consulting with former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who coached Redick during his four years in Durham.”

The Lakers have also interviewed former Charlotte Hornets head coach and former San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic assistant coach James Borrego.

Reaves obviously won’t have a hand in who the Lakers select as their next head coach, but he wants someone who comes to “work every single day” as the franchise seeks to win an 18th championship.

“I think that we’re heading in the right direction, obviously with a coaching change coming up,” says Reaves. “I don’t know when they’re hiring a coach, so I’m right there with y’all on that news. But hopefully we get somebody that comes to work every single day the way that we do ready to go try to win a championship.”

As the Lakers search for a new head coach, Reaves will be occupied this offseason as he shows off his golf game. The Arkansas native has been keeping busy on the golf course since the Lakers’ season came to a close last month. He recently tried to qualify for an event at the Korn Ferry Tour in Knoxville, Tennessee. However, he missed the cut after shooting a 76 and missing 11 strokes.

While speaking to reporters over the Zoom call, Reaves was actually on a golf course in St. Louis, Missouri with his best buddy while continuing to get some reps in. The 26-year-old will hope for a different result when he competes against 80 other athletes/celebrities in the American Century Golf Championship between July 10 and 14 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in Stateline, Nevada.

The field also includes NFL legend Steve Young, Carolina Panthers wide receiver Adam Thielen and countless others such as John Elway, Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen and Jerry Rice.

The participants will be competing for a $750,000 in prize money and a $150,000 first prize. The tournament has also raised almost $8 million for charities.

Reaves — who considers himself to be the best golfer in NBA — opened up on how “excited” he is to be making his debut in a prestigious tournament.

“I was super excited,” Reaves said about receiving the invitation. “Just like I said, just the passion I have for golf, if I’m not playing basketball, I’m probably 90% golfing. When I got that invitation, it was special because I’ve been paying attention to it the last two or three years. Like I said, it was special.”

While Reaves will obviously be matched up against guys who are much more experienced in competitive tournaments, he stresses that he’s entering with the mindset to just play “some good golf.”

“I’m just going to go play as good as I can and whatever happens after that happens,” says Reaves. “Hopefully a lot of people play a lot of good golf and hopefully I play some good golf.”