New York Knicks guard Evan Fournier had a salty response to a post showing Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves as the favorite to win the Sixth Man of the Year award.
I think its really time for the league to look into changing the awards system. Especially for DPOY. These ranking aint it https://t.co/QniPW64RWv
— Evan Fournier (@EvanFourmizz) December 29, 2023
Across 32 appearances and nine starts for the storied Lakers franchise during the 2023-24 regular season, Reaves is averaging 15.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 37.4 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
He is fresh off an impressive performance against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday. In 24 minutes of playing time off the Los Angeles bench, he ended up with 16 points, two rebounds, four assists and one steal while shooting 6-of-8 from the floor.
Reaves and the Lakers beat the Hornets by a final score of 133-112 to improve their record to 17-15 overall and 11-4 at home. The team currently owns the eighth-best record in the Western Conference and is one game back of the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 7 seed.
The Lakers’ win over Charlotte marked the team’s second win over the last three games. Los Angeles also beat the Oklahoma City Thunder by nine points back on Dec. 23.
The team’s only loss during that span came against Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics — who own the league’s best record at 24-6 — on Christmas. The Lakers fell to the Celtics by 11 points behind a fantastic two-way performance from big man Kristaps Porzingis, who finished with 28 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in 35 minutes of action.
Reaves and company will hope to pick up their second win in a row when they take on a formidable opponent in the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. The Timberwolves own the second-best record in the NBA, behind only the Celtics, and are winners of seven of their last 10 games.
Despite Fournier’s salty response, Reaves’ numbers so far indicate that he should be in the conversation to win the Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2023-24 regular season. If he goes on to win the award, he would be the first Laker to do so since Lamar Odom.
