Former Suns staffer believes Lakers’ Deandre Ayton signing will be a ‘disaster’

Former Suns staffer believes Lakers’ Deandre Ayton signing will be a ‘disaster’

One of the worst-kept secrets heading into the 2025 NBA offseason was that the Los Angeles Lakers were hunting for a center.

They didn’t have a playable starting center during the latter stretch of the season, and their need for a true big in the frontcourt got exposed in their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Jaxson Hayes‘ impact, or lack thereof, simply wasn’t enough, and the Lakers squeezed every bit of juice that they could out of 6-foot-5 Dorian Finney-Smith in super small-ball lineups.

By virtue of the Portland Trail Blazers buying out center Deandre Ayton, the Lakers added him on a two-year, $16.6 million deal last weekend. Given the cost–they used a portion of their mid-level without having to give up any asset–you could argue that this was one of the best-case scenarios that Los Angeles could ask for.

However, according to one Phoenix Suns staffer who previously coached Ayton is bearish on his fit in Los Angeles, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

“I talked to one former Phoenix staffer, one former Portland staffer. And the former Phoenix staffer is like, ‘This is not going to work. He’s going to do his little half roll thing, Luka’s going to get fed up with him, JJ Redick is going to get driven crazy — this is going to be a disaster,'” MacMahon said on a recent episode of The Hoop Collective podcast. 

“The former Portland staffer was like, ‘Listen. Everything that went wrong in Portland, some of it was on Deandre, some of it was on the organization.’ His feeling, though, was Ayton is going to understand the situation here. He’s not a max player. He’s a guy who’s been dumped by two franchises and is basically on a prove-it deal … and that’s going to create a sense of urgency, it’s going to create a kind of hunger that maybe he has not had in his first two stops in the league.”

Ayton does provide a rim-running outlet for Luka Doncic who can vertically space and be a solid rebounder. He’s always been a pretty good finisher around the rim, finishing in the 79th percentile or better in rim efficiency in six of his seven seasons, according to Cleaning The Glass.

Though Ayton does struggle in his ability to get to the rim and play through contact, sporting an insanely low free-throw rate. He isn’t physical for a 7-foot, 250-pound player.

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Where I also have concerns is his ability to defend; for much of Ayton’s career, he’s been a poor drop defender and isn’t a good enough rim deterrent against other bigs. The Lakers lack point-of-attack defense, lost Finney-Smith in free agency and are devoid of multi-positional, sturdy defenders (sans Jarred Vanderbilt and rookie Adou Thiero).

I think Deandre Ayton can be a viable partner offensively for Doncic, but I’m just as curious to see how he holds up defensively. What do you think about his fit? Let us know in the comments!

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