When the Los Angeles Lakers signed center Deandre Ayton to a two-year, $16.6 million contract after the Portland Trail Blazers had bought out his previous contract last summer, some fans envisioned him blossoming and reaching new heights. While he had been solid and at times promising in his prior seven seasons, he had displayed unprofessional behavior and was frustrating to deal with at times.
There were definitely times this season when Ayton was an impactful player for the Lakers, particularly during the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Houston Rockets. In that series, he worked hard on the boards and played physically, intense positional defense on All-Star center Alperen Sengun. But all too often, he was seen as a disappointment, as he wasn’t aggressive enough and seemed mentally checked out to plenty of fans.
Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports wrote in a recent article that Ayton may lose his job soon, one way or another (h/t Lakers Daily).
“Center Deandre Ayton has an $8.1 million player option for next season, and the team is pretty eager to move on from him and get a big man who can better fit the style of play of star Luka Doncic,” Deveney wrote. “Ayton struggled mightily at times in the playoffs, and though he had bright spots through the season, he is not considered a candidate to come back–even if he opts in, look for him to be traded or at least replaced in the starting lineup.”
In addition, one executive didn’t mince words about how he assessed Ayton’s year in Los Angeles.
“It’s hard to see his time in that role as anything but a disaster,” one NBA executive said. “The thing with Ayton is he usually does just enough for his team to think he is going to take a step forward. Then he never takes that step forward, and you go through it all over again.
“Everything the Lakers tried to do with him in the regular season was aimed at making him just be serviceable in the playoffs. Like, just serviceable–catch the ball, rebounds the ball, move around in the paint. Do that, and the whole Ayton experiment for them would be successful. He did not do that, though. Disaster.”
When the Lakers acquired Ayton, it was thought he could fit the archetype of the ideal center to place next to Doncic — an athletic big man who can run the floor in transition and convert lob passes from the superstar into easy baskets. But that vision didn’t fully pan out.
While Ayton shot a career-high 67.1% from the field, he set career lows in field-goal attempts per game (8.3), points per game (12.5) and rebounds per game (eight). There were times when he was benched in the fourth quarter, such as during Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, which L.A. lost 131-108.
Not only could Ayton be deemed unsatisfactory moving forward, but many also agree that the team could use a better second-string center than Jaxson Hayes. While Hayes had a solid season and often played with plenty of energy and effort, he’s extremely limited offensively and lacks the strength and girth to play effective positional defense or box out at a high level.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: NBA executive calls Deandre Ayton’s season with Lakers a ‘disaster’
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
