{"id":379427,"date":"2026-06-29T16:27:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379427\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:27:26","slug":"deandre-ayton-picking-up-8-1m-lakers-option-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379427\/","title":{"rendered":"Deandre Ayton picking up $8.1M Lakers option, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

ByDave McMenamin \"ESPN<\/p>\n

Monday, June 29, 2026 4:07PM<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> center Deandre Ayton<\/a> is opting into his $8.1 million player option for the 2026-27 season, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n

Ayton gave up $10 million of his $35.6 million contract to reach a buyout agreement with the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> last summer in hopes of reestablishing his value with a high-profile starting role on the Lakers.<\/p>\n

The former No. 1 pick signed a two-year, $16.2 million deal with L.A., with a player option on the second season. Ayton averaged 12.5 points on 67.1% shooting and 8.0 rebounds per game in the regular season and 10.0 points and 9.6 rebounds in the playoffs — including a strong showing to close out the Houston Rockets<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

Ayton, who turns 28 this summer, spent his first five seasons with the Phoenix Suns<\/a> followed by two in Portland before joining the Lakers last offseason.br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ByDave McMenamin Monday, June 29, 2026 4:07PM Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton is opting into his $8.1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[153466,153465,750,112,114,113,2497,129,100],"class_list":["post-379427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-153466","tag-ayton-deandre","tag-espn","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}