Huge Upgrade at Center: Lakers, Deandre Ayton Agree to 2-Year, $16.6 Million Contract

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4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

The Lakers have a center, and he's a pretty good one. Certainly a lot better than could reasonably have been hoped at the start of the offseason. Particularly at a tidy price of $8.3 million a year, for two years. On Wednesday, the Lakers agreed to terms with former Suns and Portland center Deandre Ayton, who was bought out by the Blazers over the weekend. Ayton comes with a lot of baggage, namely around health, motor and attention to detail, but is unquestionably productive. He's never averaged fewer than 10 rebounds a year, and has been a reliable source of 14-18 points a night. He's a viable lob threat, and an excellent pick and roll player. Defensively, Ayton isn't perfect, but is (when engaged) mobile on the perimeter, very solid on the defensive glass and with a 7'6" wingspan, can be a decent deterrent around the rim. So especially when you consider the Lakers surrendered nothing but (very below market) money to get him, Ayton represents as good an outcome as could be hoped for. Frankly, it's another example of a player just kind of landing in their laps, and taking advantage of it. But whatever. The Lakers have a significant upgrade at their biggest position of need, and still have tools to make some more modest improvements to the roster. All in all, a good day, one that should improve the mood around Laker Land and buy Rob Pelinka a little time to keep improving the team. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers sign Ayton. SEGMENT 2: How's the fit? SEGMENT 3: What's next? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Right now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone. Welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Thursday. Brian Kamenetsky, Andy Kamenetzki. The Lakers have a center. DeAndre Aiton agrees to a two-year, $18.6 million dollar contract.
0:10.8	16.6, $16.6 million contract. How much closer does that get the Lakers to contention that is next you are locked on lakers your daily Los Angeles Lakers
0:32.6	podcast part of the Locked on podcast network your team every day thanks to everybody for making
0:41.8	locked-on lickers first listen of every day Monday through Friday no matter how
0:45.1	where you get your podcast this one's always free and never behind paywall locked on
0:48.7	liquor's on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers handy all of whom of whom are very excited to have DeAndre Aiton,
0:57.9	well, maybe not all of whom, but many of whom, most of whom I would even say, are excited to
1:02.2	have DeAndre Aiton on board, the Lakers get their center. Not unexpected once DeAndre Aiton
1:09.2	was bought out. He was linked most closely to the Lakers the
1:12.4	entire time. Wednesday afternoon, he does clear waivers. That part's definitely not surprising.
1:17.7	And it is the Lakers who emerge with him under contract two years, $16.6 million.
1:24.9	The remaining part of their non-taxpayer mid-level, the bigger contract they
1:31.7	were able to get once DFS, Dorian Finney Smith, went to Houston. So Jake Laravia got part of that
1:39.2	money. Doreen, excuse me, D'Andre Aiton gets the rest of it. So is he a good fit?
1:44.2	We'll talk about it in a moment.
1:46.4	Do you want to let you know before that, though,
1:47.7	that Lockdown Liquors is brought to you by Monarch Money.
1:51.5	Take control of your finances with Monarch Money.
1:54.7	Use code locked on MBA at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.
1:59.6	So not unexpected, but at least in my mind, Andy, still a pretty BFD for the Lakers to land D'Andre Aden for a variety of reasons.
2:14.7	Yeah, this was huge in terms of the Lakers looking to find a center through
2:20.5	free agency. We've talked about this before. They were very limited in terms of their resources
	...

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