Reaves was on an All-Star pace before a calf strain interrupted his best season, and the roster around him now gives him every chance to finish the job.
Austin Reaves was averaging 27.8 points a game in late December when a Grade 2 calf strain pulled him out of the Los Angeles Lakers lineup for at least four weeks, and the timing could hardly have been worse.
His coach had spent the days before that campaigning for him.
"I obviously absolutely think he should be an All-Star this year," JJ Redick said after a practice in late December.
By February the word attached to Reaves was snub, and he was still waiting on the first selection of his career.
Injuries held Reaves to 51 games in 2025-26 and he still put up numbers that would have most guards in the conversation.
The Numbers Are Already There
Reaves closed the year at a career-best 23.3 points per game with 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists, shooting 49 percent from the field and 87.1 percent from the line.
His scoring average has gone up every year he has been in the league, from 7.3 points a game as a rookie to 13.0, then 15.9, then 20.2, and now 23.3, and he added 20.0 points a game across six playoff appearances in the spring.
The front office answered this offseason with a four-year max contract worth $185 million, and nobody hands out that money to a supporting piece.
Stars in this league get judged on All-Star teams sooner or later, and the Lakers just paid Reaves like one.
The Path Next to Luka Is Wide Open
LeBron James signed with Philadelphia in July, and the way his run with the Lakers ended left Luka Dončić and Reaves as the clear top two in the offense.
Dončić led the team with 33.5 points a game last season on his way to a first-team All-NBA nod, but everything James used to soak up behind him, the touches and the late-game reps, has to land somewhere, and almost all of it is going to land on Reaves.
Dončić organized a four-day minicamp in Slovenia in late August so a reshaped roster could get familiar, and Reaves signed on.
The group around the two stars looks deeper than a year ago, even if the frontcourt remains the thinnest spot, and there is a reasonable argument for one more veteran signing before opening night.
The West Guard Math Finally Works
Reaves has never been an All-Star in five NBA seasons, and the crowded Western Conference guard line is the main reason why.
Dončić will likely hold one of those spots again after starting the game last February, and the guard line is not getting easier, but the conference lost one huge name when James moved east, and a team that won 53 games and finished fourth in the West usually gets a second player into the game if it keeps winning.
The case was in place before the calf strain.
Reaves was producing like an All-Star, Redick said so on the record, the front office paid him like one, and then James left and handed him a bigger role.
The one part he has never controlled is his health, and if he gets through the winter in one piece there is not much of an argument left against him in February.
