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

Ayton gets dunked on a lot because the expectations were he was going to be a cross between KAT and AD. Not quite as good defensively as the latter but with more range offensively, not quite as good a shooter as the former but with more defense.

Instead he kind of lost his way. At his best he is a top 10 center, at his worst he is a starter quality center. BIG win for us, even if only for a year and even if he plays lazy.

 

Only realistic centers that were better, IMO, were Kessler and possibly Claxton.

Would rather have Ayton than Lopez, Horford, or the-like. Considering it's just salary cap and he's on a two year player option deal which he will most likely outplay, this keeps the Lakers free of long-term deals and they get a quality player without giving up picks.

I kinda forgot he is still getting paid $27 million from the Blazers so this is a really easy decision for Ayton. He's getting the money and the chance to win a title which in theory, if he plays well, he could easily get a 9 figure contract.

Hope this dude is there mentally... so much potential to be better than what he is.

Reaves, Luka, LeBron, Ayton, Rui. Not a bad starting five.

No more having to forcibly play Hayes.

 

And both Kessler and Claxton would require us trading guys / giving up valuable picks, whereas Ayton and LaRavia were essentially in exchange for DFS with no picks.

So yeah, from a value perspective, and asset management perspective...we gained 2 young assets for 1 older asset (DFS is 32).

 

I like to have Rui or Reaves come off the bench with defensive specialists in the starting lineup to set the tone on defense.

 

Sure would have been nice to have DFS in there with LeBron/Ayton/Reaves/Luka

Something has to happen I think wtih either Rui or Vando where we turn them into the perfect 3&D player that compliments LeBron/Reaves/Luka/Ayton.

Wiggins does sound kinda nice now with that in mind...let's see what we can pull out of our a** here...and ideally we're not giving up any picks in this deal

 

A fan of the signing, but this thread is going to get pretty damn toxic during the season at some point after a game or a stretch of games. Hoping not, but I'll just avoid it like I did most of the AD stuff.

 

Honestly it will get toxic, but with AD, I think the money we were paying him had a lot to do with it. If he wa sgetting paid $20M...I doubt anybody would bat an eye.

Deandre Ayton is not preventing us from upgrading our roster...if anything he helped us by taking only part of the NTMLE and we were able to get LaRavia, and we still have BAE and a few exceptions to use.

If we TRADED for Ayton and he was at $30M+...then YES. Absolutely. Rip him to shreds.

I'm treating him like he's Hayes because that was our only option at one point with all these centers flying off the board!

 

He'll still get ripped to shreds. The fanbase is already divided over him, IMO.

I also don't know what other exceptions you're talking about? We have the BAE, but that's about it.

Either way, that's for another thread, and this is a forum where fans can whine, moan, and complain about a player.

And I can avoid it.

 

Ayyyyyton

 

ayton has his flaws, but i don't see how anyone can't be happy that the center rotation won't consist of jaxson hayes and alex len anymore

 

Wow, now he's even dumber

He's already cringe worthy to watch and just spews nonsense

Bottom of the sportscaster list for a long time for me

 

Speaking of that

Rob needs to bring in another solid center to fill in

DA won't be able to play all the games and we don't want the team to stall when he's on the bench

Keep looking and shopping Rob

 

Everyone won't be happy by January, and I don't think much of the fanbase is happy now with this signing, IMO.; Like I said, I think the fanbase is already split, IMO. Between X(Twitter), forums, and other social media outlets, the level of vitriol that Lakers fans spew is crazy. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that and Ayton balls out, but we'll see. Don't get me wrong if he has a crappy stretch of games, he's not above criticsm, but Lakers fans (me included) go way beyond that, lol. We're emotional and invested in our team. Shrugs.

Aside from that, I'm glad we found a center who I think will do pretty damn well with LBJ (if he's still here) & Luka. According to Buha, Luka & Ayton have a friendship, their families have met each other, they share the same agent (we probably all know by now), and they have respect for each other. That's a good start. Let's hope he kills it because if he does, we all win with a better product on the court.

 

So… hopefully I won’t need to use a derogatory nickname, but if need be, I already have 3. Wait… 4.
I already have 4 derogatory nicknames for him.

 

Great addition that fell in our laps. I hated the idea when he was making over $30m and we had to give up stuff to get him. But for free asset wise and costing under $10m, I'll take that every day of the week. It would've been really dark times had he opted to sign with one of the other 6 or so teams chasing him.

The fan base hated AD's effort offensively at times, Russell Ayton is going to have people calling for his head by Thanksgiving. Let's just try to remember the dark days of Jax starting and our only backups being G-Leaguers. We still don't have a backup, but have a top 10 (?... I'd have to look) starting center.

Depending on how the roster shakes out (we'd need to trade out more players than coming back) and assuming we can't land Horford to do this (that's best case), might not be a bad idea to sign an end of the bench adult in the room to help/ mentor him. Deandre Jordan, Taj Gibson, or Re-Kief.

Again, this is as a 3rd stringer who we don't need to rely on for minutes, we'd still need to sign a backup C.

 

If Duffy and Luka and Rob come out and say they engineered the whole buyout offer to Portland .... is that against the rules prior to free agency? Honest question. Because that's what took place here by all appearances. This wasn't Rob just lucking into Ayton IMO.

 

going to gripe here a bit: it's luck that we got him, but it would have been pitchforks if we didn't. maybe...just maybe...rob orchestrated all this and knew it was going to happen? or if he didn't, maybe he did a great job selling a FA on less money here than in 6 other places?

yeah, i don't know if i was the first one saying he's the dlo of centers, but he kinda is. last time we swapped out a vetmin level player (russ) for a dlo type (dlo), it went great!

i'm actually ok with a hayes or koloko/jemison backup for now. again, i know he's said otherwise, but i think jj really likes playing without a real center as often as possible and has just begrudgingly admitted you need one to compete.

i think teams have gone too far in stocking centers in general. the truth is always in between. the center spot was never dead, but it also shouldn't be...this...alive.

 

Putting all your chips in a buyout candidate in the off season where you don't have a starting center is playing Russian roulette with 5 bullets loaded. I'm sure with Duffy he had a heads up. But there's no guarantee that Portland (who doesn't like us and overvalues all their assets) doesn't wait until after we sign someone to cut him free. There's no guarantee a new last minute candidate (like Indy) doesn't enter the conversation. It wasn't orchestrated or a done deal or it would've been announced like every other buy out in the NBA when the next destination is already lined up.

Props to Rob for landing the plane, but i'm not a fan of the process of which we landed the desired result. Playing with the best creator in the league who makes centers look 2-3x better than they are shouldn't have been a hard sell.

I'm good with them as a 3rd/4th string option. Still want better from my backup when your starter needs to be capped at 30 mpg. Even if they don't play every night and Bron or Rui see minutes there, i want the pitch option.