The Defensive Trilemma: Why LeBron James is Making Austin Reaves an Unfixable Problem

The Los Angeles Lakers’ success this season—which has seen them hover near the top of the Western Conference standings—is built on the brilliance of their star trio: LeBron James, Luka Dončić, and Austin Reaves. However, an increasing number of writers and analysts believe that the pairing of James and Reaves, particularly when combined with Dončić, creates a fundamental and potentially unfixable defensive flaw that could derail their championship aspirations.

The core of the “Austin Reaves, LeBron James problem” centers on defensive liability and the way James’s aging game is affecting Reaves’s ability to maximize his offensive potential.

1. The Defensive Albatross: The 1-2-3 Problem

The biggest, most glaring issue is the Lakers’ defensive rating when their three primary playmakers—Dončić, Reaves, and James—share the court.

• Horrendous Defensive Rating: Multiple reports highlight that the trio’s defensive rating is hovering around 120.6 points allowed per 100 possessions. This figure would rank them among the very worst defensive teams in the entire league (around 28th), a recipe for disaster in the slow-paced, high-stakes environment of the NBA playoffs.

• The Age Factor: At nearly 41 years old, LeBron James is no longer the defensive anchor he once was. Expecting him to consistently provide verticality, mobility, and high-level point-of-attack defense is simply unrealistic.

• Reaves’ Limitations: Austin Reaves is an exceptional offensive playmaker and shooter, but he is a below-average defender, particularly against quicker guards.

• The Domino Effect: When you pair James and Reaves (along with Dončić, who is also an offense-first player), the team lacks three reliable, switchable defenders in the starting unit. This allows opponents to attack the paint relentlessly, creating wide-open looks and exposing the Lakers’ entire defensive scheme. As one analyst stated, “Contending teams eventually have to get stops, and right now, the Lakers simply do not.”

2. The Offensive Synergy Breakdown

A secondary, but increasingly critical, issue is the impact of LeBron James’s evolving game on Austin Reaves’s individual offensive production.

• The Unstoppable AR: When James missed the start of the season due to injury, Reaves thrived as the team’s clear second option, putting up near All-Star numbers (averaging over 28 points and 8 assists).

• The Post-Return Dip: Since James’s return, Reaves’s offensive production and usage rate have plummeted. In recent games with the full trio, Reaves’s scoring average has fallen significantly, and his shooting percentage has dipped to around $34\%$.

• The Shot Selection Shift: Writers like Tyler Watts of Lake Show Life believe that James is making it “impossible” for Reaves to succeed. The argument is that James, now relying more on jump shots and less on aggressive dribble penetration at the rim, is not creating the same opportunities. Reaves is “used to LeBron getting into the paint and kicking out to him.” The shift has made the ball stickier and has forced Reaves to search for his own offense, rather than benefiting from the easy catch-and-shoot looks James used to generate.

The Trade Deadline Imperative

The consensus among league writers is that this defensive liability is a deep-seated trend, not a small sample size, and it is quietly capping the Lakers’ championship ceiling.

The solution, therefore, is not to trade Reaves, who is a cornerstone of the future, but to leverage other assets (like the struggling Gabe Vincent, as previously discussed) to acquire a high-level point-of-attack defender and an interior defender to mitigate the flaws of their three stars. Targets like Herb Jones (Pelicans) or a versatile big man would immediately improve the team’s defensive rating and better position the Lakers for a playoff run.

The Lakers’ ability to contend will ultimately depend on whether Head Coach JJ Redick can find a way to make the necessary defensive adjustments or whether the front office is willing to pay the steep price to acquire the defensive help needed to cover for their high-powered, but defensively compromised, star trio.