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

For real, such a strange take. Ayton did what he was brought here to do.

 

Much better game and I can only see improving.
Luka has to continue to find him, he eats off that.

He's best skill for our team is the rebounding. He's a really good one and we have always struggled with that. It's a huge improve to last year's group

 

He's so quick on his feet for a big. Lakers got used to AD but to replace that on D. He gets a ton of deflections and hands on loose balls. Really under rated aspect to his game. Even when he's not scoring you can it help the defense and boards.

 

He needs to finish quicker around the rim. When he catches a pass, he's looking around him to see if there are defenders when he should be able to just lay it in or dunk it. At the worst, he gets a foul call. Too many times he's taking a half second to think about it and then the other team either deflects the ball or gets in front of him.

He's a guy who needs that confidence to get going. What do you guys think about him spreading out to the midrange instead of just rolling to the basket? Seems like that hasn't really happened.

 

Like many of you have said, his fluidity and athleticism are clear. The lakers are going to have to actively try to utilise him to the best of their ability. Pick and rolls, pick and pops, rim rolling, screening, stretching the floor.

I want both him and Rui utilised so they can get 15 each, it’ll make us a much better team.

 

Someone mentioned body style similar to David Robinson awhile back and some of us replied D. Rob was more muscular. The first game against GS for some reason he came up and they put this photo up. And this is a young Robinson before he got even bigger, but I can see where the thought came from. Not big beefy muscled centers but defined and on the more slender side without being too thin.



And in the same location I saved this I found an old (crappy quality) freeze I captured showing how high AR got off the floor for an unathletic guy (not even "sneaky" for the lazy commentators) .... to block a shot by Klay Thompson some time in the past.

 

yeah, blake griffin and co harping on him about the roll in the pre-game seemed weird to me. he'd played one game with us. felt like they were trying to sell a narrative for purposes i don't understand.

i think their body shapes are really similar, but drob was cut out of stone--bc it think he was maniacal in terms of conditioning. but drob was almost one of one in this regard. a buddy of mine and i used to always whine about how his shoulders looked like that and ours looked like...not that.

so i guess i'd say that yeah, the big difference between ayton and drob is mentality/focus. and people talk as though you just shift that, but i don't think you do. again, ayton doesn't comprehend drob's dedication. it's foreign. that's ok. we didn't draft him number 1 overall or pay him second-star money. he's doing pretty much exactly what i'd hoped so far.