What’s your Austin Reaves move?

It was tempting to write about PGA Championship golf hero, Michael Block, but I felt compelled to turn my attention to basketball and write about new NBA star, Austin Reaves. He has an interesting story which Robert O’Connell recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal:

“As an NBA draft prospect in the spring of 2021, Reaves had fine stats and a ledger of big-game wins but was graded out as a second round pick…His agents, Aaron Reilly and Reggie Berry of AMR Agency, hatched an unusual plan - to convince teams not to draft him. With their client’s blessing, they put the word that Reaves wanted a guaranteed contract, a rarity for round two selections. It was designed to get franchises to balk. Slipping past the second and final round would free Reaves to land the same non-guaranteed deal he would likely receive as a late pick, but do so as a free agent on a team where AMR’s advanced stats suggested he would have the best chance to shine. Enter the Lakers, who didn’t have a second round pick and needed a ball-mover with a dash of shot-making.”

The plan worked and Reaves signed with the Lakers in a two way deal that became guaranteed before the start of last season. In this year’s playoffs, Reaves is averaging 15.4 points per game with 4.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds.

I don’t have much to say other than this: What’s your Austin Reaves move? What’s the off the beaten path strategy for getting where you want to go? What’s the path you haven’t even considered yet?