FanPost

DeAndre Ayton Showed Everything You Can Expect of a #1 Pick Against Lakers

The Lakers gameplan against the Suns showed the disrespect they had for DeAndre Ayton. They didn’t even start a true center against him. LeBron James started at Center with wire thin forwards Kuzma and Ingram as the only other big men. Not only that, but the disrespect continued as LeBron who was the only Laker on the floor in Aytons weight class didn’t even guard him!

Clearly they felt Ayton’s passive nature combined with the utter lack of anyone to orchestrate an offense that capitalizes on mismatches would minimize the damage done to their small lineup. Then on the offensive side they believed the quicker lineup would be a huge advantage by drawing Ayton out of the paint regardless of who he guarded. To be clear, the Lakers chose this stategy because they believed it would work not out of necessity. They have big men Tyson Chandler and Javale McGee healthy and on their roster.

To the Suns credit, they recognized this and immediately dumped the ball down into Ayton. Ayton is an elite finisher, but still doesn’t have a refined 1 on 1 game.

Ayton got deep post position on the Suns first set, took one back down dribble and hit a beautiful fadeaway spinning to his right.

The very next possession Ayton got deep position on the opposite block, the Suns recognized the mismatch and dumped it into Ayton who faced up against Kuzma and easily hit a pullup over the top.

The following play the Suns again dumped it into Ayton. As the Lakers were beginning to adjust and cheat to help they got called for a 3 second violation and Booker hit the free throw.

Three straight touches for Ayton, the straight positive plays for the Suns. It was all Ayton all the time and he dominated the Lakers defensive attention from then on. Even when he wasn’t scoring buckets, he was drawing in defenders and opening up driving lanes and freeing up shooters. Ayton’s presence was all over this game and the Suns shot 68% in the 1st quarter.

But dominating offensively against Kuzma wasn’t the most impressive part of Ayton’s game. That should be expected. Defensively he accepted the assignment of guarding LeBron James the entire game! When Ayton was drafted #1 overall everyone saw his quickness and hoped he’d be able to switch on the perimeter defensively. The knock against drafting a big man was that ‘They get played off the floor in the playoffs’.

Nobody in their wildest dreams imagined Ayton would guard the NBAs best player over the past decade and a half for an entire game! The *hope* was that he could do it in stretches occasionally in big moments.

Now I know LeBron is past his prime, has been injured, and didn’t play particularly aggressive until the end of the game. But still, Nikola Jokic couldn’t do that. KAT couldn’t do that. Neither could DeAndre Jordan or Marc Gasol or any other big man in this league. And because we always have to compare the two, even the future hall of famer Luka Doncic couldn’t do that.

Still, despite being the Suns primary scoring option and defending the opposing teams best player the entire game DeAndre Ayton still scored at his usual efficient rate. He finished the game with 26 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 8/11 from the floor and getting to the free throw line 14 times.

That is a dominant performance. That is why you picked him #1 overall. And at 20 years old he is just scratching the surface.