If he were to ignore everything happening around him during the 2021-22 season, Los Angeles Lakers sophomore Austin Reaves could have ended up pretty satisfied with his first campaign as a professional basketball player.
Of course, Reaves would have to be a special kind of self-centered narcissist to have any type of long-lasting satisfaction about this past season. Despite the young guard out-performing everyone’s expectations of himself, he was still a part of one of the most disappointing Lakers seasons of all time, much of it stemming from the blockbuster trade that brought the ill-fitting Russell Westbrook to the team.