Deandre Ayton joined the Los Angeles Lakers after he agreed to a contract buyout with the Portland Trail Blazers.
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General Manager Rob Pelinka of the Los Angeles Lakers speaks with the media during a press conference.
The Los Angeles Lakers struck out on landing a big-name center over the offseason in hopes of strengthening up what ended up being theirbiggest weakness in their early playoff exit.
While they did sign Deandre Ayton to a two-year $16 million deal after he agreed to a buyout with the Portland Trail Blazers, he alone might not be enough to compete against the other big men in the Western Conference.
“Nothing the Lakers do is under the radar, so this potential pitfall might seem moreobvious than the other contenders’ concerns,” Dave McMenamin wrote on ESPN about the Lakers’biggest concerns. “But until proved otherwise, L.A. is soft in the middle.”
Los Angeles’ center depth now includes Ayton, alongside Jaxson Hayes, Maxi Kleber, and Jared Vanderbilt. Rudy Gobert torched them in the paint in their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but adding Ayton with their other frontcourt players might not be enough to fix that issue.
Lakers Center Struggles
McMenamin highlighted the Lakers’center struggles, andthough they have multiple players in that position on the roster, none are consistent or healthy enough to put faithinto during a long postseason run.
“The Lakers’ other options at center are Hayes, whowas brought back as a backup,Maxi Kleber, who played just one game with L.A. because of a right foot fracture after being acquired in theLuka Doncic deal, andJarred Vanderbilt, their small-ball center option who has missed 99 games the past two seasons because of injuries,” he added.
Hayes was their primary big man for most of last year. However, Lakers head coach J.J. Redick had little confidence in him during the playoffs, as he averaged just 7.8 minutes per game and didn’t see action in their Game 5 loss that ended their season.
Instead, they played a small-ball lineup that featured Dorian Finney-Smith, Rui Hachimura, and Vanderbilt down low. All three struggled to stop Gobert and Naz Reid on the Timberwolves, each of whom had their highest-scoring playoff games against the Lakers out of all three postseason series they played.
In the playoffs, the Lakersgave up an average of 50 points in the painteach game, the fourth-lowestout of 16 teams. In the regular season, that number was 49.4, which ranked near the middle of the league. They alsoranked in the bottom-third in defensive rebounding percentage and blocks per game in the regular season and playoffs,meaning their lack of paint presence andrim-protection weremajor shortfallsthe whole year.
Is Ayton The Solution?
In hopes offixing that issue, Los Angeles brought in Ayton, who had some strugglesin his time with the Trail Blazers after spending the first few years of his career with the Phoenix Suns. His contract is a good deal for the Lakers, but is he the right fit for what they need on the court?
“The cost — a two-year, $16.6 million deal after Aytonwas bought out of the $35.6 million he had coming to him from the Portland Trail Blazers — was a bargain,” McMenamin wrote. “And the 2018 No. 1 pick with career averages of 16.4 points (on 59% shooting), 10.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocks is only 27.”
While his counting statistics are strong, his defensive pressure and reliability might not be enough for a Lakers team that needed to improve in that position this summer. Ayton has also struggled with injuries over the past few years and has zero playoff games under his belt over the past two years.
Interestingly enough, the Lakers did have a big man who perfectly fit the mold of arim-protector who directly contributed tothem winning games. That was Anthony Davis, who they sent to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Doncic. While it’s hard to say that the franchise and Rob Pelinka should have shot down that trade, Davis now on another team when he is exactly what the Lakers are looking for has a bit of irony to it.
Even with Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves, the Lakers can’t win four straight playoff rounds without a rim-protecting center. While Ayton might be a solution, his defensive numbers don’t match up with the other big men Los Angeles was reportedly going after earlier in the offseason.