Austin Reaves says he isn’t worried about the Lakers failing to add any major pieces during the offseason.

“I like where we’re at,” Reaves told reporters in the Philippines during a promotional tour this week. “And I think that we have what we need to go compete for a championship.”

Reaves pointed to the Lakers leading the Denver Nuggets for much of their first-round playoff matchup as a source of his optimism. However, despite this surprising statistic, the Lakers lost the series in five games, which Reaves described as something he “can’t even really wrap your mind around.”

“But it was just a couple of sequences down the stretch that we didn’t execute,” he said. “They executed but if we [did], we beat them in that series and we go on and have an opportunity to play Minnesota. So I like where we’re at.”

During the same media session, Reaves also gave his thoughts on new Lakers coach JJ Redick.

“[Redick] is someone that’s a fierce competitor,” he said.

“He came up to us [at NBA Summer League in Vegas] and was like ‘I’ve been staring at a whiteboard for three hours trying to figure out like, how we’re going to do this stuff.’ So you can just tell the intensity that he has, the time that he’s going to put in.”

READ MORE: Austin Reaves on His Career Night, Beating Odds to Make NBA

Gordon Hayward says he was a target at the defensive end of the court because of his skin colour.

Hayward seemed far from upset when discussing the matter this week, instead having a laugh about it on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.

“For whatever reason, when you see the white guy guarding you, it’s like, ‘Let’s iso him and go at him,’” Hayward said. “And so you gotta hope that you get to stop that the first time, or else they’re just going to keep going at you every single time. And I definitely wasn’t the worst defender on the team, but for whatever reason, you check in the game and [they say] ‘We’re going at him. We’re going right at him.’

“When we played the Lakers one of the years and they had Ron Artest… he looks at me and then looks back at Kobe and he’s like ‘Hey Kob, just throw me the ball in the post man. Look who’s guarding me. I’ve got Bieber guarding me.’” @gordonhayward tells an incredible story… pic.twitter.com/pH05TFlUje

— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 7, 2024

“I’m telling you, there’s just some sort of stereotype. It’s like people’s eyes light up. I remember, and this probably didn’t necessarily have to do with the fact that I was white, but maybe it was like my face and hair and everything. But when we played the Lakers, I think it was pre-season one of the years, and they had Ron Artest. I checked in the game and he looks at me and then looks back at Kobe and looks at me and he’s like, “Hey, Kobe.” He’s like pointing at me like, “Just throw me the ball in the post, man. Look who’s guarding me. I got Bieber gardening me.” And sure enough, you know he just posted me up and Ron Artest was really good, I had no chance. I mean, what can you do? At that point, what am I going to do? What am I going to say to Ron Artest?”

To be fair to Hayward, he was an above-average defender in his prime, even if he wasn’t elite.

The former Jazz and Celtics star is now retired after playing his final season in 2023-24 with the Oklahoma City Thunder.