Deandre Ayton Discussion: Agrees To Sign With Lakers

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