Lakers News: Fans Mixed On Austin Reaves After USA's 4th Place FIBA Finish

He was hardly the problem, in our opinion.

After his Team USA program fell in the FIBA World Cup bronze medal game Sunday to Team Canada, NBA fans took to Twitter/X to relay their feelings about Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Austin Reaves. Let's just say there wasn't much of a consensus on his performance, despite his emergence as one of the club's more prolific scorers.

Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards was pretty clearly the best performer on Team USA, but one fan believed that Reaves (even though he wasn't even a starter) had carved out a place hierarchically as the Americans' second-best player.

Austin reaves was the second best player on team usa 1. ANT 2. AR15 Austin out performed every other all star every game. Brunson ghosted. JJJ ghosted. BI ghosted. Paolo ghosted. People still gon hate Austin tho🤷🏻‍♂️

— Lord C2 (@TheLordC2) September 10, 2023

Another fan followed suit, believing that Reaves deserved inclusion on FIBA's All-Tournament Team. Only one Team USA participant made the cut.

Austin Reaves Snubbed https://t.co/AigSeiBjug

— Babyboi (@jmbdrippy) September 10, 2023

Reaves' non-stop motor was applauded by another fan, who asserted that he deserved more touches in the US's 127-118 overtime defeat to Canada.

Welp.

Austin Reaves sure tried his darndest till the very last seconds…

Probably should have had the ball in his hands down the stretch. pic.twitter.com/afXqokB8DK

— Lakers Legacy (@LakersLegacyPod) September 10, 2023

Though Reaves may have been a featured player, one hoop head vented that other players were more worthy of more run:

Steve Kerr used USA basketball to show case Austin Reaves……

instead of building a system that would bring winning with Allstar Brandon Ingram, Ant, JJ, Banchero & Halliburton

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫. Don’t bring him back as coach he only good with Mark Jackson team

— Keyz H (@KeyzH13) September 10, 2023

Here's another semi-compliment, in which Reaves is applauded as one of the team's best players, but the team itself is besmirched, perhaps not totally unfairly.

It's like Austin Reaves is the "star player," but it's a G-League Team. 😄😄😄 Top 3 best player of a trash team.

— Dre Day (@ddpage369) September 10, 2023

His defense was chided. To be fair, it had its faults.

Austin Reaves is a traffic cone.

— Joey (@LecryingLebron) September 10, 2023

New York Knicks swingman RJ Barrett went at the Los Angeles wing, too (and pretty much everybody else on the perimeter).

is that y’all beloved Austin Reaves getting cooked like that?! https://t.co/saIdhPM7nG

— Wave DeBusschere (@RichSpirit7) September 10, 2023

Does the third-year Laker deserve more Team USA run next season, on what will presumably be a significantly deeper club at the Paris Olympics? Time will tell, but he may wind up on the outside looking in.

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