Austin Reaves Claims Dennis Schroder Persuaded Him To Play For German National Team
Reaves has typically performed admirably for Team USA when coming off the bench.
The FIBA World Cup semifinal match between Team USA and Germany will occur on Friday. Thus, Austin Reaves will compete against Dennis Schroder, a former Los Angeles Lakers colleague.
Dennis Schroder has courted Reaves to join him on the German national team, but Reaves has instead starred this summer for the Americans and head coach Steve Kerr.
“Dennis was obviously asking me about playing for the German team in the future, and I was open to it. Obviously, I told him straight up that I wasn’t going to play this summer because I wanted to rest and we had a long run; it was my first postseason run, and then the US opportunity presented itself.”
Austin Reaves
Due to his grandmother’s German heritage, Reaves acquired a passport last year. German national team coach Gordon Herbert claimed that despite his attempts to contact the guard months prior, no one ever heard back from him.
“He (Dennis) was the first person I texted, and I said that I got this opportunity, and I can’t say no to it. I just wanted to let you know before it all broke, and obviously, he was super supportive, like he said congrats and all that stuff, so if this didn’t present itself, it was probably something that might’ve happened in the future.”
Austin Reaves continued.
Reaves has typically performed admirably for Team USA when coming off the bench. He has contributed to the team’s success with his passing and ball-handling, even when he needs to score more points.
In the past few months, he has matured. After a solid regular season, he improved his game throughout the playoffs and put in numerous impressive performances on that platform. He emerged as the third-best player for the Lakers last season.
Some people, like Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham, think the Arkansas native will soon be selected for the All-Star game due to his rise to prominence. His diversified skill set, though, will make him a valuable squad member even if he is never selected for the NBA midseason classic. Additionally, he may still be able to make further progress.
Reaves will play more point guard for the Lakers this next season, which could encourage him to continue to increase his total output.
At the commencement of training camp at the end of this summer, he will have a lot of assistance. Two other reliable scoring threats, Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell, recently joined the group through a trade. Furthermore, it took a risk on Christian Wood this week, a highly talented striker who can play the 4 and 5 positions.
