{"id":742748,"date":"2026-07-04T12:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/742748\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:47:34","slug":"wizards-reportedly-add-deandre-ayton-in-trade-with-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/742748\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards reportedly add Deandre Ayton in trade with Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton posted 12.5 ppg and 8 rpg last season with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

The Lakers continued their frontcourt makeover on Friday, reportedly trading Deandre Ayton to the Wizards.<\/p>\n

Per ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania, the Wizards will send Jaden Hardy and a pair of second-round picks (2031 and \u201932) to the Lakers for Ayton. Before free agency began, Ayton opted into his deal for the 2026-27 season, but the Lakers have moved on from the former No. 1 overall pick after one season. In 2025-26, Ayton posted 12.5 ppg, 8 rpg and 1 bpg in 72 games (all starts) for the Lakers.<\/p>\n

\"Washington Wizards receive:<\/p>\n

\"Los Lakers receive:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jaden Hardy
\nSecond-round picks in 2031 & 2032<\/p>\n

The Lakers will now focus on finding Walker Kessler’s backup on the market \u2014 with centers such as Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas and Kevon Looney among those being considered, sources said.<\/p>\n

The Wizards took a patient approach to the start of free agency and now land a\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/3GEA9Wx7gY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Ayton is on the move for the second time in as many offseasons. Last summer, the Lakers signed Ayton<\/a> after he was bought out of his deal by the Portland Trail Blazers. His season with the Lakers was perhaps best known for a game he had in January vs. Toronto.<\/p>\n

Ayton became one of two players in Lakers history when he went 10-for-10 on shooting and had 13 rebounds, joining Wilt Chamberlain (March 11, 1969) and Mitch Kupchak (Nov. 20, 1981) as the only ones to do it in Lakers history.<\/p>\n

In Washington, Ayton will join a big man rotation that includes Anthony Davis (a former No. 1 overall pick himself), Alex Sarr (who went No. 2 in 2024) and No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa (selected in the 2026 Draft).<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Lakers have freed up even more room in the frontcourt with Ayton\u2019s trade. Star forward and former Finals MVP LeBron James informed the Lakers on Tuesday that he\u00a0plans to play elsewhere next season<\/a>, altering the team\u2019s course this\u00a0summer.<\/p>\n

Guard Austin Reaves\u00a0reportedly agreed<\/a> to a four-year, $185 million deal to stay with the team. He will pair with star guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Walker Kessler (whom the team also added via a reported trade<\/a>) to form the Lakers\u2019 core for their next iteration.<\/p>\n

Reaves has grown into one of the NBA\u2019s most effective scorers and playmakers, increasing his scoring average in every season of his five-year career. Aside from adding Kessler, the Lakers also reached reported offseason deals<\/a> with Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili to help deepen their rotation.<\/p>\n

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deandre Ayton posted 12.5 ppg and 8 rpg last season with the Lakers. The Lakers continued their frontcourt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[319135,355,99],"class_list":["post-742748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-deandre-ayton-trade-wizards","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}