Film Study: Breaking down Austin Reaves’ World Cup play

Following a stellar second season with the Lakers and a thoroughly impressive playoff debut, Lakers guard Austin Reaves was selected to be part of the Team USA roster for this summer’s FIBA Basketball World Cup in the Philippines.

Although Team USA didn’t finish in the top three — losing to eventual champion Germany in the semi-finals and then Canada in the third-place game — Reaves turned plenty of heads. Let's take a closer look at the continued improvement that he showed during the tournament, and address some of the alleged issues he had:

All in all, Reaves continued to demonstrate why he’s earning the praise and popularity that he’s getting (and why his contract also might be the steal of the summer).

And regardless of the final result, this was an invaluable experience and growth opportunity for a player who has taken every experience — good and bad — and used them to improve his game and build his confidence. It should be a very effective springboard heading into the season where his role and profile will only continue to increase.

In the meantime, hopefully he gets some rest.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, is a youth basketball coach at the U12 level and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. Combining his background in biomechanics, movement science, and learning science - he consults in a variety of sports including basketball on movement mechanics and skill acquisition. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC and analyzes the Lakers from a skills & medical perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.