Sometimes asking fans of any team to rate their own players will result in some very skewed interpretations of who an individual is. Can those fans really be blamed? These people will always feel like they have a better interpretation of their own guys than the mainstream media. At the end of the day, they are the ones who spend the extra time and pay the extra attention to them.
Often times this can result in a fanbase overvaluing their own players. This can often be seen when the fantasy general manager hat is put on and the value of certain stars, role players, or otherwise becomes highly debated.
While fans can certainly get it wrong when it comes to identifying a player as a future star, or anything of the sort, the opposite can also be true. Sometimes the overexposure serves to being on the ground floor of something special. That has been the story of Austin Reaves and Los Angeles Lakers fans.
Lakers fans were right all along about Reaves
Lakers fans have been saying for years that Reaves had All-Star potential. They were often dismissed on this notion. However, the NBA community is now really coming around to the idea, offering those who have been previously shouting the aforementioned sentiment some incredible validation in finally being properly heard.
Kevin O'Connor and Tom Haberstroh offer a prime example of the basketball world finally opening up to the idea that Reaves really is that good on a recent episode of The Kevin O'Connor Show.
O'Connor asked his Haberstroh in a segment on the show whether Reaves 'secretly' had All-Star potential. Tom's response was very concrete.
"Oh yeah," Haberstroh said of Reaves' discussed upside. "It's not a secret anymore. [He has] All-Star potential for sure. ... He is very much like Khris Middleton in my head where it's like, you can get that third star coming out of nowhere and elevating their game into All-Star caliber."
When Tom was comparing the Lakers guard to Middleton, Kevin turned around and found a different player for Reaves' likeness. O'Connor called the fourth-year pro the Lakers' version of Manu Ginobli.
The two would go on to discuss how much Reaves and Luka Doncic can help LeBron James, who originally identified the new Lakers star as having that upside, with conserving the all-time great.
These are the kinds of discussions that fans in Los Angeles knew Reaves was capable of hitting eventually. That time has finally come.
Reaves has averaged 21.3 points, 6.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 35.1 minutes per game over his last 37 contests. His play from this recent stretch is even more impressive and has offered a glimpse into what life after James could look like for the Lakers.
Ultimately, every fan that was screaming to the heavens about what Reaves could become has to be feeling pretty good right now. The 26-year-old guard is just hitting what should be the beginning of his prime. It will undoubtedly be fun to see how much higher Reaves can climb with regard to his stature amongst the NBA's stars.
