Lakers to sign Deandre Ayton: Why adding big man after buyout is exactly the move L.A. needed

The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to sign free-agent center Deandre Ayton, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes. Ayton is signing a two-year deal worth $16.6 million, and the agreement features a player option in the second year, per Jake Fischer. Though Ayton was an appealing Lakers center target on paper all offseason, the possibility of actually acquiring him at a reasonable price only recently presented itself. 

Ayton was originally due to earn $35.5 million this season. Matching such a cap figure in a trade would have cost the Lakers virtually all of their extraneous salary. However, Ayton managed to secure a buyout from the Trail Blazers on Sunday (the night before free agency began), opening the door for him to sign with the Lakers at a more palatable price and leaving them the bulk of their tradable salary to potentially use elsewhere.

Prior to Ayton’s surprising availability, pickings looked fairly slim for the Lakers on the center market. They had previously tried to trade for Utah Jazz big man Walker Kessler, but the two sides couldn’t agree to a deal. There were other free-agents that were theoretically gettable at fair salaries, but all of them came with flaws. Brook Lopez is 37 and declining, and even at his peak, he wasn’t the lob threat that Luka Dončić prefers to play with. Clint Capela is, but that’s a role that relies on athleticism. He’s 31 and seemingly on the way down as well. Luke Kornet impressed in a small role in Boston, but has never proven capable of starting. Lopez (Clippers), Capela (Rockets) and Kornet (Spurs) all signed elsewhere earlier this week. These were potentially useful players, but none were capable of truly filling the hole at center Anthony Davis left behind.

Ayton has a chance to do so. Remember, he was once the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, ironically over Dončić, who went No. 3. The Lakers, more than perhaps any other team in the NBA, values draft pedigree in veteran evaluation. They love bringing in formerly high draft picks who haven’t worked out for some reason or another. That strategy worked wonders with Rui Hachimura. Less so with Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes, but these are lottery tickets. The idea is to bring in talent that shouldn’t be available at the price the Lakers are getting it at and hoping that their culture and existing star power can help make the most of it.

Ayton is seemingly on board with this idea. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Ayton wanted to join a winning team when he secured his buyout. He’s obviously been on a winning team before, reaching the NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns in 2021, but that’s where the questions surrounding his future arose.

At his early peak in Phoenix, Ayton was a franchise center. He played stellar defense, even one-on-one against Nikola Jokić in the playoffs. He proved a stellar pick-and-roll partner with his combination of athleticism and skill for Chris Paul and Devin Booker. While he’s never been the most physical big man in the NBA, he did most of the little things a center needs to do to win at a championship level. It’s long been forgotten now, but Phoenix’s demise against Milwaukee in the 2021 Finals came during Ayton’s rest minutes. The Suns actually won his minutes by nine points, but lost the ones he rested by 23.

For all of the criticism Phoenix’s front office gets, it wasn’t the Suns that gave him the max contract that just Ayton just gave up. The Pacers, a team that just reached the NBA Finals without a top-five pick on its roster, were willing and eager to pay Ayton the max to play center for them. They were reportedly interested again after Myles Turner shockingly joined the Bucks on Tuesday. Ayton’s talent is tantalizing.

The question marks have always been about his attitude. Ayton’s relationship with the Suns fell apart over their hesitance to give him the max contract Indiana ultimately did. By the end of his tenure in Phoenix, his defensive energy was not nearly the same. That carried over into Portland, where effort remained an issue. Ayton has been widely criticized for his hesitance to play near the basket and get fouled. Those problems persisted with the Blazers. When Ayton was approached with these criticisms, he responded poorly, saying he had “nothing to prove in this league” because “I’m a max player, and I’ll continue to be a max player.”

Well, in a very literal sense, that is no longer true. And that is perhaps what made Ayton so appealing to the Lakers. If he has matured through this time in Portland is willing to do what it takes to be the cornerstone player he looked like he was becoming in Phoenix, this contract is going to be a bargain. Given how far away the Lakers were at the beginning of the offseason and how few assets they had at their disposal, a high-risk, high-reward swing like this probably represents their best chance at truly entering the championship picture. They didn’t have the chips to get a player this talented under normal circumstances. If this works out, it could truly change not only this season, but the broader outlook on the Dončić era.

Greasing the wheels on a Dončić-Ayton partnership? Their shared agent, Bill Duffy. That relationship likely gave the Lakers valuable insight into what they can expect from Ayton moving forward. At just 27, Ayton fits neatly onto the presumed timeline of Dončić and fellow 27-year-old Austin Reaves. If this season goes as planned, Ayton could potentially earn his way into the long-term core in Los Angeles.

And even if he doesn’t, the risk here is substantially lower than the last one the Lakers took on a center. Ayton is signing as a free agent. While fitting his money into their balance sheet requires sacrifices elsewhere, that pales in comparison to what they were willing to pay for Mark Williams at the deadline: Dalton Knecht, a first-round pick and a first-round swap. Those resources remain at their disposal for future trades. Even if Ayton is going to be the primary center, the Lakers still have holes on the wing that need to be addressed if they’re going to meaningfully contend.

They have to resources to find those wings, though, because they didn’t have to go all-out for a center. If Ayton doesn’t work out, no harm done. The outcome there likely wouldn’t have been any different than if they had signed one of the other flawed big men on the market. But the upside Ayton comes with wasn’t available with anyone else. If the Lakers wanted to take a significant leap without paying the assets it would typically take to do so, he was their best bet. It’s a low-risk, high-reward answer to one of the biggest questions facing the Lakers this offseason.