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Montrezl Harrell: I don’t know what the hell Washington is doing, to be honest with you. It doesn’t make sense. They got the young kid AJ Dybantsa, but he’s at the three. You bring over Deandre Ayton, but you already drafted the young kid Alex Sarr. Then you have Anthony Davis, but you have another center on the bench in Tristan Vukčević. Now you have four centers because you also have Jonas Valančiūnas. Your only backup to Anthony Davis right now is Anthony Gill, and then you have Trae Young with no legitimate two-guard playing. It looks like a disaster. Their starting five is Trae Young, Khris Middleton, AJ Dybantsa, Anthony Davis and Deandre Ayton. But when you look at that bench, you can beat them with that every night. It’s going to be something where the coach is going to have to coach that team. There is a lot of uncertainty down there. I don’t see them being in any serious conversation in the East. Maybe they can get into a play-in situation, but I don’t see them being a crazy East contender. I just don’t know what their team identity is.
In terms of additions, the Lakers revamped their center position, which is a spot O’Neal is quite familiar with. And yet, while he’s happy to see some new faces in town, he’s more excited about the fact that Deandre Ayton is no longer around. “It’s only one great center and a lot of good centers,” O’Neal said. “I don’t know what the Lakers offense is gonna look like yet, but you got guys … they can do a lot of stuff around the rim, unlike ‘Dominayton,’ who didn’t do anything.”
Speaking during an episode of Lakers Mailbag, Buha said LA needed to save money and move below the salary cap to execute several additional moves. The organization also managed to receive assets in return, helping replenish its collection of draft capital and other potential trade pieces. "My understanding with the Ayton situation is it's not just that they traded him to replenish the cupboard," Buha said. "I mean, they needed to save some money, and they got some assets back. So I think those were two, you know, the two driving forces of that move. "Remember, they needed to save some money to get under the cap to execute several of their moves."
Yossi Gozlan: The Wizards remain elite at using trade exceptions before they expire. Their $13.4 million trade exception (expires today) fits Deandre Ayton ($8.1 million) & Khris Middleton ($5.6 million) to give him exactly three years, $17.6 million. This allows them to create two new TPEs.
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Dave McMenamin: The Lakers make the Deandre Ayton-Jaden Hardy trade with WAS official. Hardy will wear No. 7 for LAL.
Marc Stein: The Lakers are now pursuing both a wing defender and a backup big man after lining up a Deandre Ayton-to- Washington trade which adds $2 million in financial wiggle room for their summer business, league sources say. More NBA from @JakeLFischer and me: tinyurl.com/3bk3v449
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It’s no secret the Lakers are looking to upgrade at center (it should be noted Deandre Ayton is expected to pick up his player option and be back with the team). Robinson is the kind of big man they could use, but his health concerns — particularly his chronic ankle issues — will give the Lakers and every team some pause.
That’s not to say neither Marcus Smart or Deandre Ayton will be back (both have player options), but team sources have repeatedly talked about an upgrade at the center position. They’ve also spoken about a desire to get younger and more athletic. If I had to pick one to be back, I’d lean Smart. I just think the Lakers want a more traditional Luka Dončić-style center.
Jovan Buha: "I think LeBron is going to have some impact on whether Rui (Hachimura) is back, because if you run it back with Luka (Doncic), Austin (Reaves), and LeBron as your three best players and your three starters, Rui does not fit as the fourth player in that lineup. We saw that last season. That lineup with Rui and (Deandre) Ayton was one of the worst high-minute lineups in the league. So I think Rui could be the odd man out, especially if they keep LeBron.
Is a 25th pick a useful tool for the Lakers to upgrade over former top overall pick DeAndre Ayton? Ayton just had an awful season, for him, with an EPM of −0.58, producing 3.3 Earned Wins. Over his seven-year career, he has averaged about five Earned Wins a season. He’s at an age where he should be peaking, but instead he’s had two of his worst years. Who knows what he’ll be like next year. But is there any reason to believe a center picked late in the first-round will do better? Not soon. Only ten percent of late first-round centers perform better, as rookies, than this-season Ayton. A quarter of those centers never get as good as Ayton in his worst season. The good news is that three-quarters of centers picked between 20th and 30th eventually surpass Ayton at his worst, but there are so many ways things can go wrong between here and there.
