DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins didn’t hedge when the topic turned to what the Lakers supposedly need. On FanDuel TV’s Run It Back, Cousins argued Los Angeles should flip Austin Reaves for Dillon Brooks, framing it as the kind of clean, tough-minded move that changes a team’s DNA overnight.
“He’s a culture changer. He’s a proven winner… Brooks fits exactly what the Lakers need right now… why wouldn’t you do it?” Cousins said.
Boogie Cousins thinks the Lakers should trade Austin Reaves for Dillon Brooks
“He’s a culture changer. He’s a proven winner… Brooks fits exactly what the Lakers need right now. … why wouldn’t you do it?”
(🎥 @RunItBackFDTV )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 5, 2026
It’s a take that travels well on social media because it’s simple: the Lakers need more edge and defense, Brooks supplies both, Reaves is “one-sided,” so do the deal. But once you zoom in past the vibe words, the trade looks far more ridiculous than decisive, especially given what Reaves has become and what his ceiling now realistically resembles.
Start with the most basic problem: Austin Reaves is no longer just a nice complementary piece. Through the 2025–26 season to date, Reaves has been averaging 26.6 points, 6.3 assists, and 5.2 rebounds per game on 50.7% shooting.
That’s not “throw-in” production. That’s primary-creator output, high-usage scoring with real playmaking attached. Players who can consistently create advantages, punish closeouts, and run offense late in possessions are exactly the type teams hoard, not hand away for a role upgrade.
Brooks, meanwhile, is having a big year of his own, now with Phoenix, and remains one of the league’s most confrontational perimeter defenders, at 21.4 points with 1.7 assists per game. If you want a tone-setter who takes the toughest wing assignment and brings an abrasive edge nightly, Brooks can absolutely help. But he is, by nature, a finishing piece, someone you add to sharpen a contender’s identity, not someone you swap for a player who’s producing like an All-Star caliber initiator.
That’s the crux of why Cousins’ proposal feels backwards. If the Lakers’ issue is defensive reliability, the usual answer is to add a Brooks-type without subtracting one of your few perimeter creators who can score efficiently and pass. Trading Reaves for Brooks would be trying to solve a leak by removing your plumbing.
There’s also a practical hurdle: the money doesn’t line up cleanly. Reaves’ 2025–26 salary is at $13.94 million, while Brooks is at $21.12 million. Any realistic version of this deal likely needs extra salary and roster reshuffling, meaning it’s not even the tidy “one for one” Cousins is selling.
And then there’s the uncomfortable truth beneath the hot take: Reaves’ trajectory is precisely the kind teams dream on. He’s still in his prime-age window, he’s already shown he can scale from complementary guard to heavy-usage creator depending on lineup health, and the numbers he’s putting up this season are the kind that put you at least in the All-Star conversation if your team is relevant and the story catches fire. That’s the “ceiling” piece Cousins’ argument ignores: Brooks might raise your defensive floor, but Reaves can raise your offensive ceiling, because he can actually run the show.
None of this is to pretend Brooks isn’t valuable, or that the Lakers don’t need more two-way bite on the wing. They probably do. But the idea that the fix is trading away a player producing like a top-tier offensive engine for a player whose best NBA value comes from role definition is the kind of swap that sounds tough in a studio and looks painful on a whiteboard.
“Why wouldn’t you do it?” Cousins asked.
Because if Austin Reaves is playing like this, the Lakers don’t need to trade him to find their identity. They need to build a roster that protects his weaknesses, while maximizing the reality that he’s become one of the most productive guards in the league this season.
