Rumors

Jovan Buha: "I think LeBron is going to have some impact on whether Rui (Hachimura) is back, because if you run it back with Luka (Doncic), Austin (Reaves), and LeBron as your three best players and your three starters, Rui does not fit as the fourth player in that lineup. We saw that last season. That lineup with Rui and (Deandre) Ayton was one of the worst high-minute lineups in the league. So I think Rui could be the odd man out, especially if they keep LeBron.

HoopsHype

Is a 25th pick a useful tool for the Lakers to upgrade over former top overall pick DeAndre Ayton? Ayton just had an awful season, for him, with an EPM of −0.58, producing 3.3 Earned Wins. Over his seven-year career, he has averaged about five Earned Wins a season. He’s at an age where he should be peaking, but instead he’s had two of his worst years. Who knows what he’ll be like next year. But is there any reason to believe a center picked late in the first-round will do better? Not soon. Only ten percent of late first-round centers perform better, as rookies, than this-season Ayton. A quarter of those centers never get as good as Ayton in his worst season. The good news is that three-quarters of centers picked between 20th and 30th eventually surpass Ayton at his worst, but there are so many ways things can go wrong between here and there.

TrueHoop

Khobi Price: Deandre Ayton says he hasn't thought about his player option for 2026-27. Says he trusts his agents. "I love it here regardless."

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Khobi Price: JJ Redick when asked about this sequence from Deandre Ayton: "I’ve been around DA for a season now. I know how special he is for our group to succeed. And I told him this morning, I said to him in the Houston series at one point he was the big part of the reason we were winning the series. He was a big part of the reason we won the series. I believe in him and he’s going to help us win tomorrow."

Twitter

Deandre Ayton’s signature soft touch around the basket has suddenly escaped him. After shooting 60.4% from the field during the first round and a career-best 67.1% during the regular season, Ayton is shooting 39.3% (11 for 28) against the Thunder. He made just three of 11 shots in the restricted area during the first two games. The Lakers needed Ayton to thrive during this series against the double-big lineup of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. Some of Ayton’s shooting struggles have depended on where the lanky 7-foot-1 Holmgren has been on the court, Redick said. The Lakers have tried to draw Holmgren out of the paint more to free up Ayton.

Los Angeles Times

Hachimura, who made all four of his three-point attempts in the first half, had a chance at a three on the Lakers’ first possession but instead passed to Ayton, who was fouled on the floor. Marcus Smart tried a lob to Ayton, but the center couldn’t corral the pass. The Lakers went back to him on each of the next two offensive possessions and he scored on both. He scored six of his 10 points during a three-and-a-half-minute stretch of the third quarter. “DA is a hell of a player,” said Smart, one of Ayton’s closest teammates. “We all know it. We just want to get him the touches and get him the feel early, just to give them a different look. ... All the guards are doing their thing. So we’re just trying to get the big fella involved.”

Los Angeles Times

Dave McMenamin: The Lakers lose Game 1, 108-90, after being outscored 39-25 in the last quarter and a half. LeBron 27 pts 6 ast; Rui 18 pts; Smart 12 pts on 4-of-15 shooting 7 ast 4 stl; Ayton 10 pts 11 reb; Reaves 8 pts on 3-of-16 4 ast. OKC bench outscored LAL reserves 34-15.

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Ayton averaged 11.8 points and 10.8 rebounds in 31 minutes per game in the Lakers’ first-round series, mostly out-playing Rockets center Alperen Şengün. Nikola Jokić, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jayson Tatum and Şengün were the only other players to average at least 10 points and 10 rebounds in the first round. “DA’s had a great season. He was instrumental in us getting past Houston,” Redick said. “I think his … his, like, baseline of who he is every day for the last two, two and a half months has been awesome. And I know his teammates, certainly the staff, we’ve all embraced him all season long. Again, he’s the person that changes our ceiling the most.”

New York Times

“You can’t hear yourself. It’s definitely the “Thunder” for a reason,” Ayton said. “Their fans are thunderous. You know, you can hear the floor shaking, the bleachers, you can’t even hear a play call. And you gotta be super dialed in.” If all of this sounds hard, it’s because it is. But that was always the appeal to Smart and Ayton with the Lakers, a place where the spotlight is as big as the expectations, one where it’s too difficult to disappear. “This is the playoffs, so everybody can do more, everybody has another level,” Ayton said.

New York Times

Khobi Price: Deandre Ayton on the best parts of playing in the playoffs again after a two-year absence from postseason basketball: "I'll say the fans and the media, just everything around it. That whole atmosphere and just being in that. Having that attention on you again, everybody watching every little detail...this is where people make their names."

Twitter

Khobi Price: Deandre Ayton on the environment at Paycom Center in OKC: "You can't hear yourself. It's definitely the "Thunder" for a reason. Their fans are thunderous. You can hear the floor shaking, the bleachers, you can't even hear a play call. And you gotta be super dialed in."

Twitter

Deandre Ayton, often maligned for his inconsistent effort, has been a force in the postseason, averaging 11.8 points and 10.8 rebounds while often guarding Rockets All-Star Alperen Sengun one-on-one. “He’s been saying it all year: ‘Wait till I get to the playoffs,’” Smart said of Ayton. “It’s a different side of him that fans haven’t seen, that we expect, that we know he can give. He knows it and he’s ready.”

Los Angeles Times

Benjamin Royer: Marcus Smart said the defensive effort in Game 6, holding the Rockets to 78 points, all starts with Deandre Ayton: “I can sit here and talk all day about DA. I love him. I'm proud of him.”

Twitter

StatMuse: Deandre Ayton and Pau Gasol the only players with: — 15+ PTS — 10+ OREB — 2+ BLK in a playoff game since 2010.

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