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In an era where centers are now valued more than almost any other position, a former first overall pick who has averaged a double-double for his career and played in a Finals series is a free agent. He hasn't suffered any major, career-threatening surgeries. He hasn't had any off-court controversies or criminal activity. He's just available, and yet most teams around the league are showing bare-minimal interest, if any at all. The Los Angeles Lakers are considered by most league sources favorites to land him, but mostly because someone has to be.
Such is the situation Deandre Ayton is facing only five years into his NBA career. Information on Ayton's next team has been hard to come by, mostly because every team considering him is working on things more important to them.
For a short while, the Milwaukee Bucks were seen as a real threat to sign Ayton, but then they waived and stretched Damian Lillard to the tune of $22.5 million over the next five years to be able to sign Myles Turner. Some say they might still be after Ayton, but would he want to go somewhere on a prove-it deal after they just acquired a starting-caliber center?
Following Turner's departure, some wondered if the Indiana Pacers – who once tendered Ayton a multi-year offer as a restricted free agent – might bring him in to help get them through this down year without Tyrese Haliburton. But nope, the response from Indiana has been tepid at best, as they lick their wounds and prepare for a down year.
The Golden State Warriors lost Kevon Looney to the New Orleans Pelicans, so surely they'd be interested, right? Nope. They're considered favorites to land Al Horford in free agency and think Ayton shares a little too much in common with their infamous second overall pick, James Wiseman.
Outside of some unforeseen secret team lurking in the background – which, in this league, one can never overlook as a possibility – the Lakers seem most likely to bring in Ayton to at least start to fill their gaping hole in the middle of their lineups. But even they are considering other paths, even as the day approaches that Ayton will clear waivers, both in free agency and via trade, according to sources close to the team.
Reporting from Ayton's most recent stop in this underwhelming, perplexing career has been pretty brutal. Jason Quick of The Athletic had this doozie of a graf when describing why Portland cut their losses and bought him out:
“See, the Blazers could live with Ayton missing shots or his man scoring on him. They could even live with him being limited by injuries to 55 and 40 games in his two seasons in Portland,” Quick wrote. “But in the end, they couldn’t live with his bad ways. The tardiness to team flights and practices, according to a team source. The skipping of rehabilitation appointments. Fans saw him slam chairs when he was taken out of games. And a team source said there were tantrums in the locker room when he was sidelined for poor effort.”
Teams in the NBA will look past a lot if the talent is worth the baggage. Jaxson Hayes continued to start for the Lakers last season even after TMZ revealed video of a domestic violence incident between him and his then-girlfriend. Miles Bridges was re-signed in Charlotte to a lucrative multi-year contract after he pleaded no contest to felony domestic violence charges. The list, quite unfortunately, goes on and on.
What the NBA will not abide is a prodigious talent who thinks the world must bow to his whim without putting in proper work or garnering the expected results, especially when that talent is on an outsized contract. As such, Ayton finds himself not only unceremoniously shown the door by the Blazers, but also has been met with obligatory but not exactly excited interest by teams that have a desperate need at his position. Wherever Ayton winds up, with the Lakers or otherwise, he'll have a ton of work ahead of him to rebuild his reputation around the league, and not much runway with which to do so.
