{"id":829341,"date":"2026-07-28T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829341\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:45:08","slug":"austin-reaves-defends-deandre-ayton-says-he-was-a-top-10-big-when-in-a-good-headspace-with-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829341\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Reaves Defends Deandre Ayton, Says He Was A Top-10 Big When In A Good Headspace With Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deandre Ayton\u2019s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> proved to be both frustrating and short-lived. The Lakers shipped Ayton<\/a> out of town after just one season, but Austin Reaves<\/a> believes the criticism he received during his time in Los Angeles was a bit unfair. Reaves defended his former teammate during an appearance on the Pardon My Take<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people talk s*** about DA, and kinda how he goes about the game, but when he was in a good headspace for us last year, he was top-10 big in the league,\u201d Reaves said. \u201cIt\u2019s just trying to manage the ups and downs. Kinda was hard. But at the end of the day, he was a good dude. Good to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were indeed times when you could argue Ayton was playing like a top-10 big man in the NBA. The most notable instance was the Lakers\u2019 first-round series against the Houston Rockets<\/a>\u00a0in the playoffs last season.<\/p>\n

With Reaves and Luka Doncic<\/a> out with injury entering the postseason, the Lakers were massive underdogs against the Rockets. Ayton was matched up against two-time All-Star Alperen Sengun<\/a> and was expected to come out second-best by a wide margin. What actually happened, though, was shocking.<\/p>\n

Ayton did a fine job of guarding Sengun for much of that series and put up solid numbers of his own. The Lakers would end up winning in six, and the 28-year-old finished the series with averages of 11.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game.<\/p>\n

Ayton\u2019s stock rose greatly with his play against the Rockets, but came crashing down again soon after. The Lakers would face the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> in the Western Conference Semifinals, and he was a no-show in that series. Ayton put up 7.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game as the Thunder swept them. This fluctuation kind of sums up his career.<\/p>\n

Lakers head coach JJ Redick<\/a> even benched Ayton at times against the Thunder, and you knew his time in Los Angeles was over. Now, he had signed with them on a two-year, $16.2 million deal in 2025 with a player option for the second year.<\/p>\n

Ayton would pick up his $8.1 million option, but not long after, the Lakers agreed to trade him to the Washington Wizards<\/a> for Jaden Hardy and two second-round picks. That\u2019s not a great return, and it speaks to his value.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix Suns<\/a> had selected Ayton with the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. He was supposed to be the next dominant big man, but that inconsistent motor of his would prove problematic. The Suns traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> in 2023, and they bought out his contract in 2025 because they couldn\u2019t find a team to trade him to.<\/p>\n

Signing with the Lakers was seen as Ayton\u2019s last chance at relevance in the NBA<\/a>. He failed to take advantage of it. It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise now if Ayton just bounces around in the NBA. No team is going to give him a massive contract with his track record.<\/p>\n

Someone who did get a massive deal this offseason was Ayton\u2019s replacement, Walker Kessler<\/a>. The Lakers acquired Kessler via a sign-and-trade with the Utah Jazz<\/a> and gave him a four-year, $130 million deal. He is a massive upgrade over Ayton, and expect him to shine in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deandre Ayton\u2019s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers proved to be both frustrating and short-lived. The Lakers shipped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-829341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829341","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=829341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}