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.

 

What a game and that's without Luka
Or maybe AR is better than Luka in assists

 

Okay, he really showed me tonight.
He was hustling back on D and looked good.
Still dropped a couple easy passes, but that’s okay because he had a great all around game.

 

Kings did better with him on the floor till the 4th where he really stepped up. Like that he's finishing games strong and he DominAyted Sabonis (Sabonis did get a important tip when Ayton should have boxed him out but otherwise Ayton was great)

He is really skilled even though I agree with everyone who mentions he needs to go quicker attacking the rim. The fact you can give the ball to him at the 3 point line and he can dribble to setup a jumper, rim attack, or pass made a big difference. Really kept things open for AR and prevented the blitz/double that the Kings were trying to do to stop AR going 1v1 or killing the drop coverage

I still can't believe the Lakers just had a better-than-league-average starter basically drop into their laps for nothing and on the cheap

 

Great effort on both ends of the court tonight. Really stepped up and was #2 out there. Nice having an offensive big who's role you can scale up like that when injuries attack.





Outplayed the opposing front court in back to back games.


I do wonder if he leads the league in most offensive rebounds off his own misses though.

 

What an addition to our team where we most needed to be good and were not. Love his play, hustle, offense and defense.

 

His basketball IQ is really underrated. Just knows how to play the game.

 

I loved the play when Jake had a breakaway for a dunk and was knocked down, Ayton ran to him from the top of the key to be sure he was OK. I thought the guys will love that about him. I got a feeling he is a guy you want in the trenches with you.

 

He outplayed a big on a max contract for the 2nd game in a row