Getty Deandre Ayton, Los Angeles Lakers
As the Los Angeles Lakers continue to flirt with obscurity, it’s clear that a total rebuild should not be off the cards.
According to Joesph Casciaro of The Score, trading away Anthony Davis to the Phoenix Suns could be a legitimate way to expedite the inevitable. The proposed trade looks like this:
Suns receive: Anthony Davis
Lakers receive: Deandre Ayton, 2025 1st-round pick, 2026 pick swap, 2027 1st-rounder
A Western Conference executive thinks Anthony Davis could be traded to the Phoenix Suns for Deandre Ayton and Cam Johnson.
(via Sean Deveney)
“For as well as Davis played before being sidelined by a foot injury, the Lakers were still a bottom-five team in the Western Conference, chasing the most mediocre of play-in squads. General manager Rob Pelinka somehow again achieved the impossible: he built another team so incompetent and ill-fitting that even a healthy Davis and LeBron James weren’t enough to make the Lakers a contender,” Casciaro wrote as part of his reasoning as to why the Lakers should consider trading Davis.
Ayton, 24, is exactly the sort of young talent the Lakers should be looking to acquire if they do decide to tear down their current roster and focus on developing younger talent in the hope of creating a more dynamic roster moving forward.
Deandre Ayton Could Help The Lakers
At six-foot-eleven, Ayton provides genuine size in the middle of the floor and is used to being an offensive hub due to how the Suns like to utilize him within their offensive system. Sure, Ayton isn’t going to dictate an offense like Nikola Jokic, but his screening and hand-off ability make him a legitimate weapon on the offensive end.
This whole thing is beautiful… but AYTON WITH THAT PASS!? You kidding me?!
So far this season, Ayton has participated in 32 games for the Suns, providing them with 18.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 61.9% from the field and 38.9% from deep.
However, it’s worth noting that in order to get the best out of Ayton, the Lakers would need to ensure they’re surrounding him with shooters who can spread the floor and penetrate off the dribble – an issue that’s blighted their season thus far.
LeBron James Is Growing Frustrated
When speaking to the media on December 28, following the Lakers’ 112-98 defeat at the hands of the Miami Heat, LeBron James began to air out his frustrations, potentially applying pressure to the front office.
“I’m a winner and I want to win…And I want to win and give myself a chance to win and still compete for championships. That has always been my passion, that has always been my goal since I entered the league as an 18-year-old kid out of Akron, Ohio,” James said.
The Lakers currently sit 13th in the Western Conference, 3.5 games behind the 10th-placed Golden State Warriors, and right now, do not project as a team capable of making it into the post-season, never mind actually contending for a championship. It will be interesting to see if LeBron remains committed to the Lakers beyond this season or if he requests to be traded once he becomes eligible in the summer of 2023.
For now, though, the Lakers will need to decide how to move forward, and the longer they wait, the more a rebuild looks like a genuine option for them.