For the first time in approximately 150 years, Lebron James will be sidelined with injury to start an NBA season. That stinks for everyone, but especially for Lakers fans. If you're looking for silver linings to LeBron's injuries, the most important one is that he won't be out too long; a late-October or early November return sounds likely according to reports, meaning he should only miss a handful of games. On the court, the silver lining is that fans will get a (brief) preview of how the Lakers' likely backcourt of the future — Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves — fares without LeBron in the lineup.
This is coping, of course. Like everyone else, I want to see LeBron out there every night. But when he does eventually retire, the torch will be passed to Doncic and Reaves. Seeing how JJ Redick uses those guys as his top options will be worth watching in the short time LeBron is sidelined this month.
How does a Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves one-two punch look?
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Letting Austin Reaves [play off the ball with Luka](https://lakeshowlife.com/lakers-fans-dead-wrong-austin-reaves-fit-luka-doncic) handling the lion's share of the ball-handling duties would make sense. It's the role Luka has been playing pretty much his entire career, and we started to see those roles start to materialize down the stretch of last year when Luka got more comfortable in the Lakers system.
In March and April, Austin Reaves averaged considerably fewer assists per game (5.4 and 4.7) than he did at the start of the season (7.8 per game in December, 6.9 per game in January). That makes sense — with Luka in the mix, Reaves' scoring is his most important skill. His passing will still come in handy, but Luka is such a top-tier passer by himself that Reaves' catch-and-shoot game becomes that much more valuable. If he can be an elite No. 2 scoring _and passing_ option (which he seems to be evolving into) then this duo will be pretty tough to guard.
We saw how good Luka was with Kyrie as his No. 2 option in Dallas. Austin Reaves is an extremely different player stylistically, but if he can provide some of the same things Kyrie did — specifically the big scoring nights whenever Luka's offensive game isn't clicking like it normally does, or turning into the de facto point guards if teams sell out to get the ball out of Luka's hands — then I think he and Luka can be just as productive.
I know none of us want to think about LeBron retiring. Most of us don't remember a league that didn't include him. But when the day does come, it will be up to Luka and Austin to carry the team into a new era, and we'll get a short preview of what that era will look like to kick off this season.