Deandre Ayton Discussion: This Is A Platform I Can't Run From

yeth. I have gath.

and it smellth tho wonderful

I'm a happier kinder me.

 

Nah, my soul is pure and I’m ready for any of the craziness this world throws my way.

 

“Hello Darkness my old friend…”

 

Thought he deserved some discussion time.

Saying all the right things. Really excited to see it unfold on the court!

 

interesting shade thrown at portland (without naming them). an underrated (though not ignored) detriment of tanking is the long-term cultural impact. i think even our brief foray into it took a few years to fully wash off.

i think it's a little weird that the talk centered on pressure. i get it, but almost seemed condescending. this guy played in the nba finals. i'm surprised he didn't mention it.

he got blamed in phx--maybe not entirely undeserved, but also not fully fair--then exiled to a team that wasn't trying to win for a couple years. he's played well under pressure already in his career; he hasn't had any in years.

 

…. not sure how well he “keeps from being moved” but he MOVES “real good”.

 

Yeah. I'm bullish on him. Again, he doesn't have to be the best center in the league. Just a good center and better than what we had. Low bars for a guy with his talent.

 

yeah, considering people want to sell the farm for walker kessler, i think ayton for nothing is sort of amazing. i was willing to consider trading our expirings+vando for him before i knew the buyout was coming.

i expect him to just look like phx ayton here. 14/10, solid defense, interior presence on both ends that must be accounted for (i.e., you better box him out and you better know where he is when you drive on the other end).

 

I'm most interested to see what he can do to punish switches. Compared to the P&Rs he was running with CP3 in Phoenix and Scoot/Simons/whomever in Phoenix, I think teams will try to switch the Luka/Ayton P&Rs more often. So we'll need Ayton to be able to do some damage against wings that switch onto him.

 

yeah, and he's skilled enough to catch middle of the paint or at the elbow and create good scoring opportunities against a small--it doesn't just have to be lobs or deep post touches.

i'm more interested in how we use him defensively. guessing it means we move away from the switch-heavy stuff, which i think is a positive.

 

I think one of Ayton's problems is he's just fine being a sideshow. At his age and size, he should be capable of doing more.

Some guys just need a confidence boost and that's where I think him getting fed early into the season will help him develop that confidence. I fear that if he has a few bad games to start the season, it'll hurt him mentally. It's much better the Lakers try and get a feel for what Ayton is truly capable of early and then work around that rather than midseason and then Ayton has low confidence heading into the second half of the season.

LeBron and/or Luka will be on the court with him at all times and then you have Reaves as well. There shouldn't be any reason Ayton can't dominate offensively with easy looks. Easy popup midrange, roll to the basket, dunks, putbacks, etc., should all be available to him every game.

He has a solid mid-range (better than AD and actually in line with DeRozan which is exceptional for a center) and is very efficient on the floor. What's upsetting is he only gets to the FT line once per game... 2 FTA per game for a player of his size and 30 MPG should be able to get more players into foul trouble. I hope he can be more aggressive and look for that contact. We need Ayton to play good defense and be aggressive when he has the ball and a mismatch.

But the #1 thing is he has to be engaged defensively... Lakers offense will find itself eventually with Luka, LeBron, and Reaves. They need that defensive anchor and hustle from him. If he shows low effort defensively, it's going to be tough to root for him.

 

If he was doing all that above in the clip posted on D in the reduced minutes they played him in Portland, there's no doubt IMO he will try even harder here, on the Lakers, with hall of fame players surrounding him and encouraging him.

 

I think that Deandre, is going to be great for us. I was open to trading for him at the deadline, now we got him on a buyout. Manna from heaven.

 

Man he comes off as a likable guy - you can see why there is a discrepancy between how guys say they like him in the locker room vs the criticism of his effort on the court

What is this for the Lakers: is Ayton the 4th center in their prime they've had who has been picked as the #1 overall pick (Kareem, Thompson, Shaq) I don't think Wilt was #1.

If you just get a more consistent Phoenix version, I think it's underestimated how much this guy can impact the Lakers. Lakers going from having no legit starting center to a guy who was easily a top 10 at his position. That is a big jump in talent. If he actually improves on his game since he is in his prime compared to then - that's a legit threat

 

Isn't the mid range game directly correlated with the FT rate - one reason stats always hated the mid range jumper was that it automatically results in your chances of going to the FT line down. At this point for Ayton I doubt he's going to get on testerone and become more aggressive.

Maybe more interesting if he can shoot the 3 - he's got a good jumper if he expands the range it will help offset the loss of FT's with the additional points from long distance

 

Just play big and be a fanatic on the glass man! The offense is gravy, and he's pretty decent scoring one on one.

 

Ayton's a really good offensive rebounder so I don't think him shooting the 3 is a good idea.

Midrange makes sense for him because he can still hang around that area and then grab the offensive rebound if someone misses.

Yeah, spacing the floor might have to do with a lower FTA rate but I still think he should be able to get more than 2 FTA per game playing 30 minutes. Putting the other big in foul trouble will help the team.

 

As always,

1. Defend.
2. Rebound.
3. Finish
4. Please Stay Healthy.

Thank you.