{"id":130395,"date":"2025-09-09T14:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130395\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:31:13","slug":"blazers-finally-grant-deandre-ayton-his-longtime-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130395\/","title":{"rendered":"Blazers finally grant Deandre Ayton his longtime wish"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Deandre Ayton wanted a buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers so that he could join a winning situation<\/a>. Now that he has landed with the Los Angeles Lakers and two superstars, Luka Doncic and LeBron James, he’ll get that opportunity. <\/p>\n

Ayton initially came over to Portland as part of the Jusuf Nurkic deal (which should now be referred to as the Toumani Camara trade). He wanted out of Phoenix, and Portland was willing to bet on the upside of a former No. 1 overall pick, hoping he would benefit from a change of scenery. <\/p>\n

At least the Blazers landed Camara in that portion of the blockbuster Damian Lillard deal, because their Ayton experiment didn’t go as planned. <\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton will benefit from another change of scenery<\/p>\n

He’s coming off arguably the worst season of his seven-year career, averaging 14.4 points and 10.2 rebounds on 57\/19\/67 shooting splits. Those numbers are solid for a starter, but they get much more problematic when considering Ayton was the highest-paid player on Portland’s roster. Additionally, Ayton has always been the type of player whose stats overstate his impact on winning. <\/p>\n

The most impactful centers in the modern NBA typically provide a combination of elite rim protection and\/or floor spacing. Despite his willingness to attempt the three-ball, Ayton isn’t consistent enough to be considered a threat from beyond the arc. He also oftentimes gets lost defensively, which can be frustrating, as he should be a more assertive rim protector given his elite physical tools. <\/p>\n

The buyout was a win for all involved parties. Ayton forfeited $10 million of his $35.6 million salary, which was a win for the Blazers<\/a>. They now get to build around a complementary center duo of recent first-round picks, Donovan Clingan and Yang Hansen. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ayton signed a two-year, $16.6 million deal with the Lakers, which includes a player option for the second season. He makes back almost all of the salary he forfeited in the buyout, but finds himself in a much better landing spot. <\/p>\n

The Lakers now have a full season to figure out how to best utilize Doncic, and perhaps most importantly, finally have that lob threat he loves to have at his disposal. It wouldn’t be surprising if Ayton’s presence plays a key role in Doncic receiving his first MVP award next season. <\/p>\n

Not only does Ayton land with a contender, but he’s also a significant reason why Los Angeles is suddenly dangerous in the Western Conference. Ayton’s change of scenery in Portland didn’t go according to plan, but being in a losing situation was a primary factor. This contending situation with the Lakers could be the exact thing he needs to reshape the trajectory of his career. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Deandre Ayton wanted a buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers so that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-130395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}