Austin Reaves on what the Lakers need: "A more physical five especially when you run into someone like Jokic"

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves recently sat down with journalist Trevor Lane. The LakersNation.com writer asked AR what he thought the Purple and Gold lacked in the last campaign.

Reaves and the Lakers struggled to a 47-35 regular season and needed to win a play-in tournament game to advance to the playoffs. They ended up losing to the Denver Nuggets 1-4 in the opening round of the postseason, and according to Austin, they could've used a big body, especially against the Nuggets.

"One thing that I personally thought we could've had was a more physical five, especially when you run into someone like Jokic," said Reaves.

AD has been the Lakers' primary center since their 2020 title run

The Lakers have utilized All-Star big man Anthony Davis as their starting center in the last three seasons. While AD is a beast on both sides of the court and a more than capable big man, playing the five position has taken away the advantage they had when they won the 2020 NBA title.

During that title run, Davis played his natural power forward position alongside big men like Dwight Howard and Javale McGee manning the center position. He produced a dominant Finals performance with AD relieved of the duty to bang bodies with the opponent's centers. Interestingly, the Lakers played the Nuggets in the 2020 Western Conference Finals, and Howard did a great job of limiting Joker.

"You ask AD to do much on offense and the defensive end, and he's capable, but if you're able to give him a little break, you know, guarding like a Jokic, so he can be more focused on help-side defense and make it tougher when Jokic makes his first move to see an AD on the back line, that's tough to score over cuz he's such a good defender. And he can worry more about on the offensive end but regardless, he had a hell of a series, either way, but that's just the first thing that comes to my mind," added Reaves.

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Cube says the Lakers need a true big man

Interestingly, Austin's sentiments are echoed by popular rapper and BIG3 founder Ice Cube . During his recent appearance on 'The Big Podcast with Shaq,' Cube said that if the Lakers want to compete for a title next season, they need a 'true' big man .

"You know it was Dwight Howard in there, it was Javale McGee, and you know, we had another big guy, but you know, AD can only do so much," said Ice Cube. " I think you have to free him up a little bit. And so I think that was the missing piece with the Lakers, and as you see once we went up against Denver again, that was the missing piece," added Ice Cube.

The Lakers drafted shooter Dalton Knecht from Tennessee with the 17th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft on Tuesday night at the Barclays Center. It remains to be seen what they do with the 55th pick on Wednesday night, but new coach JJ Redick should look at what AR and Cube are trying to say because it could save his job someday.

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