Austin Reaves told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that the thing he misses most about LeBron James is the consistency: he treated him the same from the day he met him as a two-way player to now. With James in Philadelphia, the obvious question is whether Reaves can step into the leadership role James left behind.
The evidence says that handoff already happened. What’s still open is a narrower question about who carries the offense.
The Locker Room Already Answered to Him
The best evidence comes from inside the building. Dan Woike of The Athletic, answering readers’ questions, wrote “We’re going on year two or so of Austin Reaves being the most vocal leader,” and added that Dončić is pretty quiet and James is far more of a lead-by-example player.
In Woike’s account, Reaves had become the bridge between the back of the bench, the team’s stars, and the coaches even before the Dončić trade.
So James’s exit doesn’t leave a hole in the voice of the team, because James was never that voice. JJ Redick said the same thing in preseason: “Since the guys have been back (from the Slovenia trip), Austin has been the leader in the gym every day.”
Reaves is also the longest-tenured Laker, now in his sixth season in L.A., which counts for a lot on a roster full of new faces like Walker Kessler, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili.
The production backs up the standing. Last season he averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists in 51 regular-season appearances on a 64.1 true shooting percentage. In the games James missed, Reaves averaged 28.4 points and 7.8 assists across 16 games.
The Load Is the Unproven Part
The skeptic’s case is real, but it’s about workload, not leadership. Being the loudest voice was easier with James on the floor as a safety net. In the 2026 first round against Houston, James led the way with Dončić unable to play due to a hamstring strain. That safety net is gone.
The numbers that should worry people are in the playoffs, where Reaves averaged 20 points per game during the team’s 2026 playoff run, a step down from his regular season. That run ended in a sweep by Oklahoma City.
The 16 games without James make a promising sample, but it’s still 16 games. And the opener, a 127-105 rout of Golden State, came with a warning even though Reaves had 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting: he and Dončić combined for 10 turnovers.
None of that argues against Reaves as the locker-room leader. It argues that the job worth watching is the one he’s never had to do for a full season.
The Real Test Is the Minutes Without Dončić
SES’s verdict: the leadership handoff isn’t much of a debate. Reaves has been the Lakers’ vocal center for about two years, and his coach and the team’s beat reporting both say so. The debate people think they’re having belongs to an earlier chapter.
The real question is whether Reaves can be the stabilizer when Dončić sits, running lineups built around Quentin Grimes and Mamukelashvili with no James to fall back on.
The Lakers are paying for exactly that. He agreed to a four-year, $185 million maximum contract, the richest ever given to an undrafted player.
What would change this view: if the Lakers’ minutes without Dončić fall apart over the first couple of months, or if Reaves’s turnovers climb as he handles the ball more as a lead guard, then the “Reaves as leader” story was always a production story in disguise.
One game tells us nothing either way. The locker-room question is settled. The workload question will be answered in the bench minutes, not the press conferences.
Source: Ramona Shelburne of ESPN
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