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Coming into the season, the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> knew they needed a center after getting bullied in the first round last year. They decided to take a chance on someone still unproven: Deandre Ayton.<\/a><\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cLos Angeles will have interest in former Phoenix Suns<\/a> and Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> center Deandre Ayton,\u201d Stein wrote. \u201cThe Trail Blazers are reportedly in the process of buying out Ayton. The Arizona product was the first pick of the 2018 draft by the Suns, and helped that franchise rebuild into a contender in the early 2020s. However, his play has slipped since he joined Portland via trade in Sept. 2023; his 2.8 win shares in ’25 were a career low,\u201d Sports Illustrated\u2019s Patrick Andres wrote.<\/p>\n The good news for Ayton is that he showed promise during the preseason.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still a level of caution revolving around Deandre Ayton that is hard to shake. However, in the very early parts of the Ayton experience for the Los Angeles Lakers, it is likewise difficult to shake the present feeling that Rob Pelinka and the front office made the biggest steal of the summer,\u201d Lake Show Life\u2019s Syvatoslav Rovenchuk wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n However, on Tuesday night, Ayton didn\u2019t look sharp at all. He appeared disconnected from teammates like Austin Reaves and Luka Don\u010di\u0107. The lack of chemistry\u2014due to limited preseason minutes together\u2014was obvious. It\u2019s a problem the Lakers need to fix quickly.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cDeandre Ayton admitted he might be a \u2018confusing\u2019 pick-and-roll target after Austin Reaves blamed some of his five turnovers for making the \u2018wrong pass at the right time\u2019 in the two-man game with the new Lakers center,\u201d Lakers insider Dave McMenamin posted.<\/a><\/p>\n The entire reason for signing Ayton was to provide Reaves and Don\u010di\u0107 with a reliable lob threat. But without chemistry, that option isn\u2019t there. Until they figure it out, the offense could continue to stall\u2014and that could mean a rough start to the season.<\/p>\n Reaves and Don\u010di\u0107 are veterans, and they\u2019ll likely speed up the adjustment process. But for now, this is an issue opposing teams will look to exploit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lakers’ Deandre Ayton’s startling admission exposes growing problem with Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. Coming into the season, the Los Angeles Lakers knew they needed a center after getting bullied in the first round last year. They decided to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Lakers-Deandre-Aytons-startling-admission-exposes-growing-problem-with-Austin.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7417,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7415\/revisions\/7417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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