The Portland Trail Blazers made a minor move at the trade deadline, sending a heavily protected second round pick to the Boston Celtics for Dalano Banton, holding on to all of their rotation players.

While Blazers GM Joe Cronin made a good case for doing so on Friday, there have been reports of issues with starting center Deandre Ayton, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic:

“But I would have liked something bold. A trade of Deandre Ayton, for starters. Although his play has spiked for the better in the past month, his first months in Portland were defined by tardiness and tantrums according to team sources. And there has been an eerie resemblance to Hassan Whiteside, the former Blazers’ center whose statistics looked nice, but had little to no impact on a game. The quicker the Blazers can move off Ayton, the sooner I will believe this franchise is headed in the right direction.”

It's true that Ayton has been playing better of late, averaging 19 points and 7.6 rebounds in his last seven games as the Blazers make a concerted effort to get him more involved. But the center has generally been underwhelming this season since coming from the Phoenix Suns as part of the multi-team Damian Lillard trade.

Ayton has also missed 17 games so far this season due to knee tendonitis, illness, and famously missing a game due to weather because he couldn't get to the arena. Though to be fair, anyone making fun of Ayton for missing that game hasn't been to the West Hills area of Portland during an ice storm.

On the season, Ayton is averaging 13.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game for the Blazers.