NBA

Plaschke: Would you rather be with LeBron James or Austin Reaves? Most fans will take Reaves

ballervisions 2026年1月18日

In the city where he played for the longest time of his life, LeBron James should be considered one of the greatest Lakers of all time.

However, by most accounts, he has yet to make the top 10.

James set the scoring record here, set the career record here, and won the long-awaited NBA championship here.

Yet he is often ranked behind Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, James Worthy … and maybe even Pau Gasol?

If he is going to leave the team after this season, James should get a statue. It won’t. He should get a farewell game like Kobe Bryant’s last farewell game. It won’t.

For eight amazing seasons, LeBron James has poured his soul into entertaining fans who are so passionate that he still fills the Crypto.com Arena with joy and light and tomahawk dunks at the age of 41.

Read more: Lakers’ JJ Redick defends LeBron James amid ‘negative’ criticism

However, many fans can’t wait for him to leave.

They are tired of his drama, unsure of his credibility, dissatisfied with the results, and ready to welcome a new face to the franchise. One of those is Austin Reaves, who unknowingly clashed with James this week amid some negative speculation from James’ agent and close friend Rich Paul.

The bottom line? If forced to choose between James and Reaves, here’s a guess that the majority would choose Reaves. If they are forced to keep James or Reaves, the Lakers will almost certainly keep Reaves.

These types of questions will be important at the Feb. trade deadline. 5 coming up, there, with the team going nowhere, maybe James should realize that his days here are numbered and consider removing that no-trade clause.

If not answered, the questions will come up again this summer, when Reaves becomes a free agent and can command a maximum contract of $241 million over five years. The Lakers will pay him, which leaves James, who is a potential free agent, and whose contract requires depth on the bench.

If James leaves the Lakers for any reason – retirement, looking for a title elsewhere – the Lakers can sign Reaves and still have $50 million in cap space.

Think about that.

Lakers forward LeBron James hugs teammate Austin Reaves after he missed a three-pointer during their game against Utah. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Fifty million in the offseason for a team that has locked up its two best players? Are you kidding?

With James out of the way, the Lakers can finally fully commit to a retooling around Luka Doncic and Reaves.

It’s all very simple, isn’t it? It got complicated this week when the struggling Lakers were suddenly hit with a devastating blow at a very difficult time.

Paul appeared on his podcast about trading for, of all people, Reaves.

On “Game Over With Max Kellerman and Rich Paul,” Paul mentioned the benefits of trading Reaves to Memphis for Jaren Jackson Jr.

“This comes with an absurd attachment because Austin is loved, he’s supposed to be, he’s a downer,” Paul said on the podcast. “There’s a world where you can do what’s best for your team, and do what’s best for Austin. Because Austin deserves to be paid. Now, I love him as a Laker, but if that was a situation where we find a balance – because if you put all the money in the backcourt then your flexibility is restricted going forward to fill the rest of the team…”

Paul even said that Memphis would be the perfect place for Reaves.

“Memphis will definitely pay for Austin,” Paul said. “He’s going to be … probably their point guard and leading scorer, for sure. … But definitely their highest paid player.”

Read more: Why LeBron James’ Lakers jersey has a new ‘cool’ patch

A similar idea urging the Lakers to trade Reaves appeared in this column last summer, but that was written before Reaves started to break out this season, averaging 27 points a game on 51% shooting before the calf injury.

You are hot. You have arrived. It’s him.

The idea of trading Reaves now feels silly. Even worse, it sounds like an opinion signed by James himself.

Trading Reaves will affect James more. Getting Jackson will give James more room. All speculation can be summed up in one sentence that has nothing to do with Reaves or Jackson.

The Lakers have to do what’s best for LeBron James.

No, it shouldn’t. No, you shouldn’t. Yet that’s what Paul said, and one would be naive to think that’s not what James had in mind, even though he denied any involvement in an interview with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

“I think you all know by now, Rich is his own man and what Rich says is not accurate about me and how I feel,” James told McMenamin. “And I hope people know that. I hope people know that and if they don’t have the sense to know that, I don’t know what to tell them.”

In the same interview, James also expressed his love for Reaves. A wise man.

“AR knows how I feel about him,” James told McMenamin. “All you have to do is look at us on the bench. Me and AR talk every day. So, AR knows how I feel about him and I hope AR – or his camp – doesn’t look at me and think these are words from me coming from Rich.”

Turns out, Reaves’ camp thought the words were coming from James, who witnessed a brief courtroom meeting between Reggie Berry, one of Reaves’ agents, and Paul during a Lakers game earlier this week. According to ESPN, Berry reached out to Paul for clarification on his comments.

Later on his podcast, Paul said he told Berry, “I want Austin to know that this is not about Austin Reaves because I love the player, I love the person.”

Everyone, it seems, loves Austin Reaves, and he’s not going anywhere. Meanwhile, after another tumultuous week in the life of the reigning kingpin, it feels like LeBron James is almost gone.

This story first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.