Maybe the Los Angeles Lakers’ most notable transaction this offseason was to sign big man Deandre Ayton to a two-year deal after he cleared waivers with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Lakers just so happened to have a massive hole at the center position heading into free agency, and the team found its starting center for the coming season in the former No. 1 overall pick.
Ayton joins the Lakers with a reputation as a highly talented yet frustratingly inconsistent player. The big man has been a great scorer and rebounder ever since he stepped foot on an NBA court — he’s the first player to average double digits in points and rebounds in every one of his first seven seasons since Dwight Howard. But there are those who believe that he plays without consistent effort and tenacity, and that’s held him back from maximizing himself as a basketball player.
With his complicated reputation in mind, what’s the best-case scenario for Ayton in his maiden season playing for the storied Lakers organization?
He averages 20-plus points per game for the first time as a pro
Ayton tied a career-low by averaging 14.4 points per game with the Trail Blazers a season ago, but in this best-case scenario, the former University of Arizona star plays a surprisingly large offensive role for the Lakers in the 2025-26 campaign.
With the exception of floor general Chris Paul, the big man hasn’t suited up with playmakers of LeBron James’ and Luka Doncic’s caliber before joining Los Angeles, and he ends up getting a few easy baskets per game by simply playing off them. Doncic and James take a lot of offensive attention away from Ayton, hence he finds himself taking and making more open shots than ever before.
He averages 20-plus points per contest in his maiden season with the team and shoots 60.0 percent from the field and 75.0 percent at the rim. That would mark a career season for Ayton from a scoring standpoint, as he’s never averaged more than 18.2 per contest in an NBA campaign.
Ayton is already a proven and capable scorer, but he stakes his claim as one of the top scoring centers in the league in his first season wearing a Laker uniform when accounting for his mix of volume and efficiency.
He’s a defensive anchor for a top-10 defense in Los Angeles
Ayton is best known for his impact on the offensive side of the ball, and he’s far from the most decorated big man in the league on the defensive end. He doesn’t have a single All-Defensive selection to his name since he joined the NBA.
But, earlier in his career, he was the starting center on a Phoenix Suns team that won 51 games in a shortened 2020-21 season and went on to reach the 2021 NBA Finals. Phoenix had the sixth-best defensive rating in the league during the regular season, and Ayton consistently contributed in the steals and blocks categories across 69 games played. Plus, in the 2021 NBA Playoffs, he had one of the best defensive ratings among all starting centers at 107.8.
Playing alongside excellent defenders such as guard Marcus Smart and forward Jarred Vanderbilt, Ayton gets back to being the sneaky good defender he was earlier in his career. He serves as the backbone of a Los Angeles defense that finishes the coming season in the top 10 in defensive rating, and criticisms about his perceived lack of effort and focus on that end die down.
He matches his own playoff record in the 2025 NBA Playoffs
Ayton became the first player in NBA history to average 15-plus points while shooting 60-plus percent from the field in the playoffs when he averaged 15.8 points per game on 65.8 percent accuracy from the floor in the 2021 NBA Playoffs. If all goes well, Ayton will check those scoring boxes again in the 2026 NBA Playoffs and put together another highly effective and efficient playoff run from a scoring standpoint.
Ayton is a dominant offensive player for the Lakers in the playoffs, and because of that, the team manages to make a surprise run to the Western Conference Finals. Los Angeles gives the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder a real run for its money in the conference finals with its three-headed dragon of Doncic, James and Ayton, but the team bows out in six games.
In light of how well he fared for the Lakers in the 2026 NBA Playoffs, the consensus view becomes that the team would be wise to keep Ayton around for the long haul. Ayton and Doncic seem to have great chemistry with one another as well, and the Lakers are in a position to contend in the Western Conference for years to come with them leading the way.