Austin Reaves is averaging 23.5 points on 50.7% shooting through 10 games for a Los Angeles Lakers team that has won eight of them. However, a former Lakers guard questioned how efficiently Reaves gets his numbers, and his criticism received immediate pushback from NBA fans.

Ex-Laker’s Austin Reaves Assessment Under Fire From NBA Fans

In a clip posted by the Gil’s Arena podcast on Saturday, Green said Reaves has “kind of been struggling.” The three-time champion also talked about Reaves’ turnovers and how much he needs to score now that LeBron James is playing for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Green opened by calling Luka Dončić and Reaves “killers and closers,” but his main point was Reaves’ scoring now that James is gone. “It’s okay when Bron’s there. When Bron’s not there, that number has to be more. It’s decent, but not good enough for that team unless you have a real defensive threat.”

Turnovers were the other sore spot, and Green tied them to the efficiency question: “Now if he averaged those numbers without the turnovers, turnovers is really what’s hurting him, but I think he could be a little more efficient.”

The turnovers Green pointed to show up in the same comparison. Reaves is giving the ball away 3.9 times a game, up from 3.0 last season, and he had 8 turnovers in a game twice in October, against the LA Clippers and the Golden State Warriors.

Green then set his bar, saying, “There was times where he was having 27-28. Like he has to be there for them to be really good.”

Green’s comments drew criticism, and one fan was blunt: “This just a bad take Danny. While his attempts are going down, the Lakers are just spreading the ball around a lot more and Reaves is STILL the highest scoring second option in the entire league.”

Reaves’ shot attempts have gone up, not down, from 14.9 a game last season to 15.2 this season. Another observer made the same second-option argument, writing, “He’s the highest scoring 2nd option in the league rn btw.”

Shooting splits were the centerpiece for another fan, who wrote, “He’s avg 24ppg on 50/40/90 and … has the highest ppg for 2nd options??? What are we doing here?”

Reaves is shooting 50.7% from the field, 38.6% from the 3-point range, and 89.4% at the line. He is also averaging 6.6 free throw attempts a game.

One more hoops observerstepped back to look at how the guard gets talked about at every turn: “Why does AR have the worst PR in the league? Every stage they say he not that. … now 24ppg on 65% TS not enough.”

Compared with last season, his shooting is up across the board. Reaves averaged 23.3 points in 51 games in 2025-26 while shooting 49.0% from the field, 36.0% from the 3-point range, and 87.1% at the line.

Reaves came off a 25-point night in Friday’s 124-118 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, when he shot 8-of-22 from the field but turned it over only twice.

The Lakers (8-2) visit the Detroit Pistons (6-2) on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET at Little Caesars Arena. It is the next test of whether Reaves can keep his scoring up while trimming the giveaways Green flagged.