“Bron’s gravitational pull is too strong. When he out there, he going to command so much.” Paul Pierce dropped that little flare like a man who’s seen this movie too many times, warning the Lakers that the doom clock is already ticking.

Sure, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves are out here smiling, gassing up the idea of playing under LeBron’s leadership, all sunshine until their minutes start shrinking. And with reports hinting that LeBron’s return is just days away, you can practically hear the footsteps. Any minute now, he’s walking back in like, ‘Alright kids, recess is over. Dad’s home.’

With a few days still left before the king clocks back in, Shaquille O’Neal hopped on The Big Podcast with Shaq and dropped some veteran street-code wisdom. “He [Reaves] can play. But when the big man come back, everything shifts back. Like I’m going to put it in street terms. While the OG in jail, you’re running s—. But soon as he come back home. You understand?”

Shaq continued, “So, I just And I kind of feel for Austin cuz he he looks good. He’s playing good. But when when LeBron when when they have their full team come back, he’s going to be reverted back to standing in the corner taking last second.”

The Lakers are sitting at 10–4 after their win over the Bucks tonight. Austin Reaves has been quietly putting together the best basketball of his life whenever LeBron James isn’t around to cast that solar-eclipse-level shadow. 

And to really understand how wild this jump is, you have to look at his timeline. Before this season, Reaves was a steady 14.5 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.8 rebounds player on 48.1% shooting. Last year, that number increased to 20.2 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.5 rebounds on 46% shooting, all while LeBron was almost always available.

Now, if you take the first nine LeBron-less games of the season, Austin Reaves has basically hijacked the Lakers’ offense, averaging 28.3 points, 8.3 assists, and 5.1 rebounds on 47% shooting. Some of those matchups came without Luka Doncic, too, forcing Reaves to play an actual grown-up floor general. 

And on Friday against the Pelicans, he put up 31 points (9-16 FG, 2-6 3PT, 11-13 FT), 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block, and 1 steal in 39 minutes, leading the Lakers to a 118–104 win. Right now, he’s sitting at 28.6 PPG (8th), 5.0 RPG (T-89th), 8.2 APG (6th), and 47.8 FG% (77th), quietly putting together the best stretch of his career.

And yet, even with this takeover, Reaves knows the vibes shift the moment LeBron checks back in. He kept it diplomatic, saying, “Knowing him, he’s been watching these first, what is that 11 games and, analyzing the game in a sense of where he knows when he comes back, ‘This is how I can help the team.’” 

Read between the lines and you can almost hear him admitting he’ll go from lead actor to “supporting cast, aisle seat” real fast.

Last season, LeBron averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.2 assists on 51.3% from the field and 37.6% from deep, so the ball is absolutely going to be magnetized in his direction again.

Still, no one in the locker room is panicking about his return, at least not publicly. And to make things easier for both Reaves and Luka, Paul Pierce casually lobbed the most chaotic solution imaginable: “For this to work, like when LeBron comes back, LeBron got to come off the bench.”

A scenario straight out of an alternate universe, but honestly? This season has been weird enough for LeBron already, so checking off one more “never thought I’d see that” moment might not be the worst idea in the world.

Is this the ‘Reavesvolution’? Comparing Austin to Jeremy Lin’s “Linsanity” era

Just a day before Halloween, Shaquille O’Neal kicked off a debate that had the NBA crew buzzing: Austin Reaves versus Jeremy Lin. Shaq, Chuck, and Kenny Smith were visibly at odds on the topic, reacting to Reaves’ fireworks on the court: a 51-point explosion here, a 41-point show there, and a career-tying 16-assist performance in the same game.

Smith seemed to see the parallel with Lin’s 2012 “Linsanity” run, when an undrafted Lin went from 2.8 points per game to dropping 25-plus in seven straight games for the Knicks.

ESPN’s Dave McMenamin even dubbed it the “Reavesvolution,” noting, “This week is reaching Linsanity levels for Austin Reaves. Let the Reavesvolution continue.”

Stacking the stats side by side, Reaves appears to hold a clear edge. In regular-season scoring, Reaves averages 14.8 points per game compared to Lin’s 11.6. Playoffs? Reaves nearly doubles Lin’s score, from 16.7 to 7.2. Assist-wise, the margin is slim but in Reaves’ favor: 4.4 to Lin’s 4.3, although Lin did peak higher in a single season with 6.2 assists versus Reaves’ 10.0 in his best games.

Defensively, Lin nudges ahead slightly in steals (1.1 to Reaves’ 0.8), and Reaves trails a bit in blocks, but efficiency tells another story. Reaves shoots a smooth 48.2% from the field, 37% from deep, and 86.5% from the line, clearly outpacing Lin’s 43.3%, 34.2%, and 80.9%.

So, could this “Austin-sanity” rival or even eclipse “Linsanity”? Only time will tell, especially with LeBron looming back on the court, ready to reclaim his gravitational pull. Until then, Reaves is living the moment.