Just days after acquiring center Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade deal with the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers traded Deandre Ayton, their starting 5 last season, to the Washington Wizards for two second-round draft picks and guard Jaden Hardy.
While some understood the reasoning behind the trade, others felt it was ill-advised. To them, Ayton would've made an outstanding backup center behind Kessler, although Ayton has never averaged fewer than 27 minutes a game in eight NBA seasons and would've likely gotten no more than about 15 minutes a game on this new-look Lakers squad.
Jovan Buha, who covers the team on his "Buha's Block" podcast, revealed during a recent episode an interesting reason why L.A. jettisoned Ayton, and according to him, it wasn't just to recoup a bit of the draft capital it gave up to get Kessler.
"My understanding with the Ayton situation is it's not just that they traded him to replenish the cupboard. I mean, they needed to save some money, and they got some ****** ets back. So I think those were the two driving forces of that move. Remember, they needed to save some money to get under the cap to execute several of their moves. However, it wasn't just that."
"There was also an element of Ayton and Luka [Doncic] sharing an agent, and they wanted to put Ayton in a position where he could continue to play and rehab his value. He's not going to be playing a ton. He's not going to be starting, but maybe AD (Anthony Davis) gets traded."
#kessler #Lakers #center #starting
While some understood the reasoning behind the trade, others felt it was ill-advised. To them, Ayton would've made an outstanding backup center behind Kessler, although Ayton has never averaged fewer than 27 minutes a game in eight NBA seasons and would've likely gotten no more than about 15 minutes a game on this new-look Lakers squad.
Jovan Buha, who covers the team on his "Buha's Block" podcast, revealed during a recent episode an interesting reason why L.A. jettisoned Ayton, and according to him, it wasn't just to recoup a bit of the draft capital it gave up to get Kessler.
"My understanding with the Ayton situation is it's not just that they traded him to replenish the cupboard. I mean, they needed to save some money, and they got some ****** ets back. So I think those were the two driving forces of that move. Remember, they needed to save some money to get under the cap to execute several of their moves. However, it wasn't just that."
"There was also an element of Ayton and Luka [Doncic] sharing an agent, and they wanted to put Ayton in a position where he could continue to play and rehab his value. He's not going to be playing a ton. He's not going to be starting, but maybe AD (Anthony Davis) gets traded."
#kessler #Lakers #center #starting
3 months ago
