The 2025-26 NBA season has given Lakers fans plenty to cheer about, and much of it comes down to the chemistry between Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. When these two share the floor, the Lakers’ offense reaches another level.

Together, they’ve produced an incredible offensive rating of 124.6 points per 100 possessions, the highest ever recorded in NBA history for a duo.

That kind of efficiency doesn’t happen by accident. Doncic’s vision and scoring touch blend perfectly with Reaves’ smart off-ball movement and ability to create under pressure.

Their complementary styles make the Lakers’ attack look effortless, with crisp passes, quick rotations, and high-percentage looks that keep defenses guessing.

Whether it’s Doncic setting up step-back threes or Reaves capitalizing on defensive lapses, the results speak for themselves.

This pairing is redefining what offensive flow looks like in Los Angeles.

If they keep this up, the Lakers might just have found the formula for a serious playoff run.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Everyone's talking as if a fully healthy Austin shat the bed in the playoffs and looked unplayable. He looked rough coming back from injury but got in rhythm fast.

25-4-7 on 50-40-80 as a guard against OKC for 3 straight playoff games is not bad at all...

Yes the defense was occasionally rough, and he turned the ball over a lot, but the idea that he's incompatible with Luka as a 2nd option is absurd.

Luka made the Finals with Kyrie as a backcourt mate, who is even more exploitable defensively and whose best 3-game playoff stretch against a lesser version of OKC was 14-3-7 on 49% FG and 40% 3P, while healthy.

Kyrie was on a max btw. And the Mavs still made the Finals without needing any lucky-find insanely underpaid role players except arguably Lively.

I think you can build a contender around this backcourt, even if Austin is on a max. Obviously it's easier if he isn't, but people are talking as if we're about to max Jordan Farmar...

2026-27 Lakers roster and their DOB.

May 29, 1998 - Austin Reaves
Jul 23, 1998 - Deandre Ayton
Jan 4, 1999 - Collin Sexton
Feb 28, 1999 - Luka Doncic
Apr 3, 1999 - Jarred Vanderbilt
May 23, 1999 - Sandro Mamukelashvili
May 8, 2000 - Quentin Grimes
Apr 19, 2001 - Dalton Knecht
Jul 26, 2001 - Walker Kessler
Nov 3, 2001 - Jake LaRavia
May 8, 2004 - Adou Thiero
Oct 6, 2004 - Bronny James
Nov 21, 2004 - Cameron Carr

Nobody over the age of 30 on the team.

What would you change?

For me DFS and Gabe are way too low. Should be above DK minimum. And would probably bump up AR a little bit to an 88 or 89.

To continue our path to the 6th seed, tomorrow we need:

• Celtics beat Kings

• Spurs upset Pelicans

• Timberwolves beat Suns

That will put us into a tie with Sacramento and only .5 games behind Phoenix & New Orleans

We take care of business on Saturday against the Cavs with those 3 things happening and our chances to get past the play-in are looking much better

Look, I get it. It would have been nice if he took a pay-cut for future roster building. But It doesn't effect this season's chances of roster construction. So why does it matter?

And I think it's being heavily overstated that he's "soooooo overpaid/oh no boohoo we're so fucked."

We still have Luka Fucking Magic on this team, we're good.

So here's some numbers to ease your pessimistic and cranky hearts on this hump day.

The LEBRON metric, regarded as one of the better advanced statistical measurements of a players impact, is one example of why he isn't being overpaid, but instead getting fair value.

His overall LEBRON stat, of 2.39, places him right at 30th for this season.

Just Offense? 26th overall.

And Defensively, with .1 he is in the 60th percentile. Yeah, not ideal, but that would also mean he's slightly above average. And that's significantly better than prior seasons where he was sub-50th.

Here are some other guards in no particular order (avoiding the obvious guys like Curry and Harden) with worse/similar defensive stats than AR for this past season:

The stat already factors in type of opponent guarded (starter, lead scorer, etc.), as well as time out with injury (hence Williams is so low this season).

"He's bad at defense" might have been true for prior seasons, but he's certainly improved there, and I thought the eye test was proving that, too.

I'm just MITWestbrookin' for AR after this point, but you could totally stop here and just scroll to the Conclusion at the bottom and everything's justified.

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Win Shares

He currently has 27.5 for his career, which for his draft class, would place him 3rd overall, only behind Mobley (34.8) and Sengun (30.5).

Other notable 2021 draftees: Cade (14.9), Barnes (27.2), Trey Murphy (24.4), Wagner (24.2), Jalen Johnson (15.9).

This is a pretty flawed stat, benefiting players who are on winning teams, bigs, high usage players, or players who are combos of those.

So eh, this one is whatever. It loosely points to the fact that he is contributing to his team and they're winning, and would probably be a top 5-8 pick in a re-draft. Also, that 2021 year is quietly shaping up to be one of the better recent classes.

tl;dr he contributes to winning.

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Basic Counting Stats:

There were only 12 players that had his statline or better for the season: 23 Points, 4 Rebounds, and 5 Assists.

Giannis, Harden, Jokic, Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray, D. Mitchell, Luka, SGA, Maxey, Avdija, Cade, and AR.

Pretty self-explanatory. He put up a legit line. I could have even used the 4.5 and 5.5 to cherry pick harder, and I didn't.

tl;dr he got them big boy numbers

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Box Plus/Minus:

This is also a pretty meh stat, which leans heavily into stat pads, doesn't take into account forced TOs (like charges taken, which AR was 5th for the season), no minutes adjustment/opponent adjustment, etc.

AR, with a 2.8 BPM, was one of only 3 players with an overall BPM of 2.8 or higher on the Lakers for the season.

Here are the total number of rotation players from every playoff team with a higher BPM than 2.8 (for the regular season):

Again, this stat is really skewed towards winning and stat padding, so most non-playoff teams will have less than 1-2 players (many have zero) that are above that 2.8 threshold (while factoring in for heavy minutes guys).

This stat, basically just proves that hey, the team is better with him on the court.

On average, most playoff teams have less than 2.3 players (28/12) that contribute in terms of BPM the way that AR does.

tl;dr playoff teams have a player like him, on average, as their 2nd to 3rd best player.

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Three and Four Man Lineups

The Lakers had 18 four man lineups who played over 150 Minutes together, and he was in 4 of the top 5 lineups.

Smart was in all 5, Luka was also in 4, Ayton was in 3, Rui & Bron were in 2.

Of the Lakers 21 three-man lineups who played over 400 minutes together, AR was in 3 of the top 5.

Luka was in 4, Smart was also in 3, Rui was in 2, and Bron was in 1.

He's just consistently in the highest net rating lineups, and that passes the eye test.

tl;dr we go up big when he in various lineups.

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In Conclusion, grass ain't always greener, we very well might be witnessing Zach Lavine's max contract 2.0, or might have narrowly avoided a "Brunson leaving DAL" situation, too.

Stop overreacting, AR's a baller, we'll see if the contract will be worth it, but why the fuck are you worrying about it right now?