Draymond Green and Baron Davis debate whether Austin Reaves is the NBA's best third option alongside LeBron and Luka, praising his clutch shooting and defense. They also discuss Cade Cunningham's composure and potential to win a championship with Detroit.
Chapters
Our last game of the trip is Los Angeles Lakers, which is crazy by the way. Let's just speak on it. Yes, it's the Lakers, tough game, all that.
Oh yeah.
But then you come home from a 2-week trip on the back-to-back versus Denver. Let's just talk about the NBA schedule makers for a reason. That's trash. Moving on. Shout out to the NBA. Our last game versus the Los Angeles Lakers on this upcoming trip. Don't know if Draymond Green will be back by then, assuming he will, uh, but since Luka's debut, he's led the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, 3-point percentage, and plus-minus. Recently, the focus has shifted to Austin Reeves, with many calling him the best third option in the league. What do you think, BD? And just as a note, James Worthy, Big Game James, the legend himself, said, I'm telling you people, Google Pistol Pete. Oh, Pete Maravich, for those of you that don't know who that is. He said, that's him. Thoughts, BD?
Love Austin Reeves. Love Austin Reeves. Best third option in the league. Man, I cannot argue against that. Man, he got ism. You hear me? He got confidence. He take big shots. He make tough shots. He can get to the bucket. You can't, you know, hezy pull-up layups, fearless, chip on his shoulder, and not afraid to take big shots. Yeah.
Right? Actually wants the moment.
Wants the moment.
He want the moment.
He looking for you to leave him open, right?
Yeah.
And the confidence that the Lakers and JJ Redick showing in him and turning him into a point guard. Right, you look at that dynamic with, you know, him and Luka, that backcourt, right? And then you with Luka and LeBron every day and you a young pup, man, and you got that mentality already. He just got like, he ain't even touched his ceiling right now. He's starting to learn how to pass, starting to play, make more plays defensively. He's, you know, he's leveling up. I can see Austin Reeves as a, as an All-Star. I can see— I like him a lot better than I like a lot of people, man.
Here's what'll have to happen for, for Austin Reeves to be an All-Star, and he should understand this. Their team has to be top 2 or 3 in the West because LeBron and Luka's gonna make it, right? So you're getting 2 off your team, no question. So if your team's top 2, top 3 in the West around that time, then you could possibly get 3 in. That'll be— that'll have to be his path to becoming an All-Star. But nonetheless, I think, um, when I look at Reeves, and they say best third option in the league. I'm— I haven't really sat down and looked at third options to be like, third options best. And here's another thing, all the third options ain't just based off scoring, because third option, third option, you have to do other things sometimes because the scoring may not— the ball may not come your way as the third option if Luka and Bron got it going. So I think when you're speaking of third options, it can't be just based off scoring, you know what I'm saying? It has to be based off overall impact. And so I'm not going to sit here and debate and say he not the best third option. I just haven't done the exercise to figure out if, if he is or isn't. That's my opinion. But he definitely at the top, no questions asked. And I think one of the things that I like most about Austin Reeves, I saw this clip of him and it's actually his demeanor on the court where I saw this clip, he was on some podcast and he said, you know, everybody like, oh, I got the white boy. And he said, it's gonna be hell you come this way. And that's actually his demeanor. —on the court. It's like, you think, "Oh, I got off, it's gonna be hell." And so I love the demeanor that he carries, how he embodies, you know, just that, having that mentality on the floor. You know, so shout out to Austin Reeves. I think he playing great basketball. The Cade Cunningham game winner versus Miami. It was good to see the young fella, you know, take advantage of that moment. You know, pull up for the Tracy. He on his back. Over Bam Adebayo for the game. Said that was his first 3, the game winner. And I loved his explanation after the game. He said, "Man, that's the moment you like, you grow up in the driveway, 3, 2, 1, and you let that thing go." And it was great to see him have that moment. As you know, I'm always rooting for the Detroit Pistons when they ain't playing against us.
Me too, man.
So I was happy to see K had that moment. That was big time.
Yeah, that was my sleeper team. Remember them Houston at the beginning of the year? That was my sleeper team. Cade Cunningham has a SGA type of aura. Yep, he just has it. Yeah, yeah, he got the aura. He got the aura. You know, I challenged Cade to play one-on-one. I'm still not gonna duck that fade, but damn dude, I gotta have— It's too late. He nice, bro. Hey, hey, he's so nice and poised and mature and— And I would say this to young kids out there, like if you wanna be great, you have to figure out pace, how to dictate pace. And K Cunningham is settling into his flow, into his pace. And he's like Luka Dončić, SGA, Steph, everybody has their own kind of pace and they look like they moving slow, right? But it's because you can never get them too fast, too slow. It's always in their comfort zone. And that's where Kay Cunningham is right now, man. Can't speed him up. He in a comfort zone and, you know, 6'7". He can shoot the 3, get, you know, big body, get to the bucket. I like his maturity.
Mm-hmm. I like his— He look like he feel like he belong in the position that he's in.
Yeah, he feel like he should be there. And that's big time. Bigger than that, right? He look like he prepping for the next level.
Yeah. You know?
I'm gonna say it here first.
Cade Cunningham will bring a championship back to Detroit. I think he will. I think I see it happening.
He got the mentality.
He got the talent. He got the talent, he got the demeanor, he got the size, which a lot of people underrate. He got the size to put a team on his shoulders and actually carry it. Cade Cunningham will bring championship basketball, championship rings, at least a ring. Back to the Detroit Pistons. Obviously I understand how important franchise and organizations is to that ownership, right? And them bringing in Trajan Langdon, I think is a big deal. I think Trajan is ready to take that next step and ready to take that next step with the team.
Yep.
So I don't know when it's gonna be, 'cause I think they still got some fine tuning of the roster and, and different stuff that need to happen over the course of time. But Cade Cunningham will bring a championship back to Detroit.
I can't deny that with his game and, you know, with what they building over there, they got the talent. They want the talent. So look out for them for the next, you know, the next 5 years. We gotta keep a close eye on what's about to start happening in Detroit.
1 million percent. Shout out to the city. Motor City, 313. Shout out to my Detroit people.
