When the Lakers landed center Deandre Ayton on a two-year, $16 million contract this offseason, there’s no doubt the deal was a bargain for L.A. Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft, has been a starter his whole career, with averages of 16.3 points and 10.3 rebounds.
At the same time, questions about his defense and his overall focus have long lingered around Ayton, and helped push the Suns to trade him in 2023 and nudged the Trail Blazers to buy him out this summer–essentially paying him $25 million to not play for them. And while the Lakers have benefited from Ayton’s ability as a scorer inside, they’re also now getting a taste for the aspects of his game that inspired his two previous teams to get rid of him.
Ayton missed two games last month with a knee contusion, and since returning, things have not gone well. He has, on the season, averaged career lows in points (14.3) and shot attempts (9.3), but those numbers have dropped even further in the five games since he has been back: He’s averaging just 9.4 points and 7.0 shots in that span.
Deandre Ayton ‘Doesn’t Feel Like He’s Getting the Ball’
But what is troublesome for the Lakers is that, when Ayton’s shot attempts and scoring go down, so do his other numbers–he is averaging just 6.2 rebounds and 0.4 blocks in his last five games, and Redick opted to sit him out for almost all of the fourth quarter of the team’s win over the Grizzlies on Friday.
Asked about Ayton on Saturday, JJ Redick gave a lengthy answer: “I think he’s frustrated, doesn’t feel like he’s getting the ball. You know, there’s stuff we have to clean up vs. the shock for him to be more available. But I’d say it boils down to that.”
GettyLakers’ JJ Redick during a timeout in a game against the Sacramento Kings
Lakers Need to Get Deandre Ayton More Touches Early
Redick was asked how the Lakers can address the matter, and he said that while Ayton needs to do more to get himself involved, he should be calling more plays for him early in the game to make sure he gets engaged.
“It’s on everybody,” Redick said. “We tried to run an ATO for him that was one of the ATOs we didn’t run correctly. There’s opportunities for him to duck in at times and he is not being active. There’s opportunities for us to hit him when he does duck in and we’re not hitting him. So that to me, it comes down to, is he gonna be active and engaged and assertive, I think the trust level from the passer builds off that. But I think we’ve got to start trying to at least get him some touches before the seven-minute mark.”
The problem of keeping big men involved in the game is not new in the NBA and hardly unique to Ayton and the Lakers.
“I think most guys, we talk about it as a team, you don’t feel like you’re getting the ball, the rest of your focus kind of wanes a little bit. I think that’s human nature for most NBA players,” Redick said.
Lakers Disorganized Offensively
Redick has been frustrated with the Lakers of late, and even in the win over the Grizzlies, he was still not happy. He has frequently criticized his team’s defense, but he said the offense has been out of sorts lately, too.
“I don’t know what else to do. I do a lot of joy-sticking over there on the sidelines,” Redick said. “Yesterday, I said, ‘Let’s run a way toss and bring it up the left side I want so-and-so in it.’ It was after a dead ball, I am calling it on the fly. And we bring it up that side and the person I wanted to away toss isn’t over there. It’s just like, that is happening so consistently right now. I chalk it up to the holidays.”
Asked if he thinks his Lakers are just forgetting plays, Redick said, “I don’t know. I wasn’t a guy who forgot plays.”
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