{"id":148071,"date":"2025-07-02T17:37:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T21:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=148071"},"modified":"2025-07-02T18:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:23:42","slug":"lakers-news-deandre-ayton-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/02\/lakers-news-deandre-ayton-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Land Slam Dunk in Former No. 1 Overall Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

It only took a few years, a massive shake-up, a rescinded trade and an underwhelming postseason, but the Lakers have finally found their starting center. The team will sign <\/span>Deandre Ayton<\/span><\/a>, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft, to a two-year, $16 million contract, according to ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a> as well as insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer<\/a>. The Portland Trail Blazers bought out Ayton\u2019s contract<\/a> Sunday, jolting the free agency market hours before it opened. While the Lakers\u2019 status shifted in recent days, Stein confirmed Ayton\u2019s commitment to LA<\/a> around 1:45 p.m. PT.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cherry on top? Ayton\u2019s agent is Bill Duffy, who also represents his new teammate: <\/span>Luka Doncic<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Land Slam Dunk in Former No. 1 Overall Pick<\/b><\/h2>\n

Ayton a Near-Perfect Fit for the Lakers<\/b><\/h3>\n

Ayton, who found his way to Portland after a <\/span>bitter breakup with the Phoenix Suns<\/span><\/a>, showcased his talents for a rebuilding <\/span>Blazers<\/span><\/a> squad over the last two years. This season, despite only playing 40 games, he averaged 14.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 block per game. He also shot 56% from the field, 19% from three (6\/32) and 67% from the charity stripe. A February left calf strain<\/a> sidelined him for four weeks before it kept him out for the rest of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov
Nov 4, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton (2) dunks the ball against New Orleans Pelicans forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (50) and guard Jose Alvarado (15) during the first half at Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bruising big man is the kind of center the Lakers had <\/span>turned over every stone<\/span><\/a> for: a <\/span>lob threat<\/span><\/a> who could run to the rim, swish some midrange jumpers, and protect the paint, all while lining up with their timeline around Doncic. Despite his talent, however, reports have warned of various <\/span>off-court issues<\/span><\/a>, including \u201c<\/span>tantrums in the locker room when he was sidelined for poor effort.\u201d With a prestigious franchise carrying high expectations and superstar talent, many expect Ayton to change his ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ayton is only the second free agent signing for the purple and gold, who inked 6\u20198\u201d forward and Pasadena, Calif., native <\/span>Jake LaRavia<\/span><\/a> to a two-year, $12 million deal<\/a> Monday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

For all his faults, Ayton is still an ideal addition to a team that was searching for solutions at the five for years. Acquiring a two-way double-double machine is a major win for the Lakers, and doing so for significantly less than his <\/span>previous contract<\/span><\/a> is a steal of a deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Soobum Im-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It only took a few years, a massive shake-up, a rescinded trade and an underwhelming postseason, but the Lakers have finally found their starting center. The team will sign Deandre Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft, to a two-year, $16 million contract, according to ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania as well as insiders Marc […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":148076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62,3,28,23],"tags":[1419,49497,1133],"class_list":["post-148071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","category-suns","category-trailblazers","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-jake-laravia","tag-luka-doncic"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148071"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148577,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148071\/revisions\/148577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}