As time has moved along, Austin Reaves has continued to improve and develop, and sometimes it seems as if an All-Star game selection could someday be in the cards for him.
At the very least, he has given the Los Angeles Lakers what seems to be a legitimate big three alongside LeBron James and Luka Doncic. While the jury is still out on whether he’s the NBA’s best third option, he’s averaging 19.6 points and 6.0 assists a game this season, and he has put up 22.5 points per game since the start of February.
While he still may not be a natural point guard, his ball-handling skills have improved, and the behind-the-back dribble he uses to get past defenders is starting to become his trademark move. It has caused Lakers great James Worthy, who is now a Spectrum SportsNet analyst, to compare him to late Hall of Famer Pete Maravich.
Maravich was the all-time scoring leader in the history of men’s college basketball (Caitlin Clark broke his record last year) while averaging an incredible 44.2 points a game in three seasons with Louisiana State University. Given the more restrictive NCAA rules back then — freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity ball and there was no shot clock or 3-point line — he may have put up even gaudier numbers had he been born a few decades later.
He didn’t quite duplicate those numbers in the NBA, but he was still a big star who finished his 10-year pro career with averages of 24.2 points and 5.4 assists a game. He was one of the game’s truly great showmen, and he did so during an era when the NBA was struggling to gain interest and respect from the American public.
The big difference between Maravich and Reaves is that Maravich was flashy simply to be flashy. Reaves doesn’t try to showboat, and any flash he displays is simply out of necessity, given his lack of athleticism and speed.
But it doesn’t really matter, as the undrafted guard continues to impress people across the basketball world.
