Austin Reaves had a simple message after practice: the Lakers are turning the ball over too much, and he and Luka Doncic are why. “I’m pretty sure JJ [Redick] said we’ve had 20 or more turnovers in every game,” Reaves said, per Heavy. “Me and Luka probably are the main catalyst for those.” He wants them cleaned up, and he wants the offense “organized.”
I think he is half right. Per minute, he and Doncic are the Lakers’ biggest turnover problem. By volume, they are a small part of it, and the Lakers coughed it up 22 times on a night neither played.
From the ESPN box scores: the Lakers had 21 turnovers at Sacramento on Oct. 5, 22 at Golden State on Oct. 6 and 24 against Sacramento on Oct. 8, which is 67 in three games, or about 22 a night. (ESPN’s team line adds team turnovers and shows 25 for the last two games. I’m counting player turnovers only, and Redick’s 20-plus holds either way.) Last season the Lakers averaged 14.5 a game, 15th in the league, per Basketball Reference. That is a big jump, even allowing that preseason games have fringe players on the floor.
Reaves is right about the rate
Doncic played two of the three games, 16 minutes at Sacramento and 25 against the Kings at home. He committed five turnovers in each. That is 10 in 41 minutes, or about 8.8 per 36 minutes. Last season he averaged 4.0 a game in 35.8 minutes over 64 games, with a turnover percentage of 12.8, per Basketball Reference. So his preseason rate is more than double his normal one.
Reaves played only the Oct. 8 game. In 25 minutes he had eight assists and three turnovers, about 4.3 per 36. His 2025-26 line was 3.0 turnovers in 34.5 minutes over 51 games and a 14.0 turnover percentage, per Basketball Reference, which works out to roughly 3.1 per 36.
Put the two together. Doncic and Reaves had 13 of the 67 turnovers (19%) in about 66 of the roughly 720 minutes the team played (about 9%). They turned it over at about twice the rate of the team as a whole. That is what Reaves meant by “main catalyst,” and the box scores back him up.
It also fits who they are. Doncic’s usage rate was 38.1% last season, per Basketball Reference. A player who runs the offense will turn it over more than the guys who finish it. Doncic averaged 8.3 assists last season and 4.0 turnovers to go with them. That trade is a good one for the team. Ten in 41 minutes is not.
The one game where both played shows the same split. Against Sacramento on Oct. 8, the Lakers had 24 turnovers. Doncic and Reaves had eight of them, a third of the total, in 25 minutes each (50 player-minutes). Grimes and Bronny James had 10 more in 51 minutes between them, which is the worse rate of the two groups. I can live with a star who gambles on a pass that sometimes gets picked off. A backup guard handing over the ball on a routine possession is a different problem, because nobody else on the floor is creating enough to cover it.
The other 54 came from everyone else
These are the Lakers with the most preseason turnovers across the three games, plus Reaves, per ESPN:
| Player | Turnovers | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Luka Doncic | 10 | 41 |
| Quentin Grimes | 9 | 71 |
| Jaden Hardy | 9 | 42 |
| Bronny James | 8 | 59 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 6 | 58 |
| Austin Reaves | 3 | 25 |
Grimes, Hardy and Bronny James combined for 26 turnovers, twice what Doncic and Reaves had together, in 172 minutes. Grimes had six in 29 minutes against Sacramento on Oct. 8, and Bronny had four in 22 minutes while adding six assists. Hardy had five at Golden State on Oct. 6, in 19 minutes.
That Golden State game is the cleanest test. Doncic, Reaves, Collin Sexton and Walker Kessler all sat, and the Lakers still turned it over 22 times in a 124-98 loss. Bronny, Grimes and Hardy combined for 11 of the 22 that night. I wrote about that game in our look at Redick’s “unacceptable” postgame, where the rotation fight was the point.
Reaves is being hard on himself. The Lakers turned it over 22 times without their two main creators, so the problem is bigger than those two.
Why it should matter before Oct. 21
Two things make this matter before opening night.
The stars’ minutes are where it hurts. If Doncic carries his preseason rate into a 36-minute night, that is more than eight giveaways, a number the Lakers cannot absorb against Golden State on opening night.
LeBron James is gone, and so is part of the cushion. He averaged 7.2 assists and 3.0 turnovers in 33.2 minutes over 60 games last season, per Basketball Reference, so he was a real second creator. His passing is the larger loss, as I laid out in what LeBron’s departure took with it. Now the Lakers need Reaves and the backup guards to carry that work, and the backup guards are giving the ball away. I made the case for Collin Sexton running the bench unit for that reason.
What Reaves got right
I like that he said it. He pointed at himself first.
Redick has two preseason games left, Oct. 13 against Golden State in Las Vegas and Oct. 16 against Denver, per Heavy. Here is what I will track:
- Doncic’s per-36 turnover rate. If it settles near his 2025-26 number, the first week was rust. If not, there is a real problem with how the offense runs through him.
- Who handles the ball in the second unit. Grimes, Hardy and Bronny had 26 turnovers in 172 minutes. If that group is still sloppy in Las Vegas, Redick needs a different answer before the regular season starts on Oct. 21.
- The team total. Redick’s 20-plus has to drop against Denver.
Reaves has the stars right and the scope wrong. The Lakers have a ball-security problem that starts with their two best passers and runs through the guard rotation behind them.
