Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Are the Lakers Better off if Deandre Ayton Picks Up or Declines His Player Option?

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

The Lakers would like to upgrade at center. That much has been made pretty clear. Certainly Lakers fans would like to see the same thing.  The complicating factor is Deandre Ayton, and his player option for next season. Ayton made about $8 million this year, and will make similar money next year. It's certainly possible he reads the market and decides there's a longer term deal out there, but nobody would be even a little surprised to see Ayton decide his best avenue is to stay in LA and play out the option.  So which one is actually better for the Lakers?  For Ayton non-believers, the answer might be trickier than you think.   HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky with Deondre Hawkins of 710 ESPN Los Angeles   Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Ignite your taste buds with the flavor of the summer. Get a Firework Freeze 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today. For more information, visit https://FiveHourEnergy.com. Betterhelp This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.Sign up and get 10% off at https://BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDONNBA. KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.   DoorDashFrom tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.DoorDash. In your bag all season long. QuoMake this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

DeAndre Aiton has a player option for next season. A lot of fans would like to see him go. But are they actually better off if he picks it up? That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for stopping by Locked on Lakers, Brian Kavanaughn-N-Nexkey,

Andy Kaminetsky, joined this afternoon by DeAndre Hawkins. Lakers Talk Daily on 710 ESPN. the YouTube feed. You can also hear them weekdays from three to six. It's producer of the Travis and DeMarco show or the DeMarco and Travis show, either one. DeAndre, thanks for sticking around

talking with us a little more. Appreciate it. Of course, man. Any time for you guys, I'm always open and available for you guys. It's a long summer, DeAndre. I wouldn't have been quite as explicit about that, but

might have held something back Given me from now, texting on your new phone, who this. Guys, I didn't mean that literally. I was being polite. Please stop calling. So I mentioned this on the show for Monday. I think it actually was. I saw a really interesting hypothetical that I wanted to get into where somebody,

some aggregator or something, it wasn't the correctness of the report that got my attention that DeAndre Aiton is going to turn down his player option. He's got an $8 million option, $8 million plus for next season. What it actually got me thinking was, okay, are they actually better off or worse off if Aiton were to decline that option? And D'And D'Andre, as somebody who has a visceral distaste, for for for eighton i will let you begin i would be wrong and i told a k this already i would be

wrong if i didn't say diondra aid actually had a pretty solid season for the los andrews lakers especially at the rate they were able to get him for now i know he had a lot of ups and downs and realistically him being that starting center for the lakers and trying to fulfill that starting caliber big man role for the lakers i really do believe he did a really good job but if diond were to opt out of his contract i would i wouldn't look at it as like i i would just look at it as okay good because i i took a look and there's one particular big man that i saw that was that is going to be a free agent and he played for the portland trail boys and his name has been linked to the lakers and his name is robert williams now robert williams now robert

Williams. I know he has had an injury history. I know he cannot stay healthy, but I do believe that Robert Williams had a really, really good season. When he played, he was good. He had a really, really good season for the Portland Trail Boys. Now, Robert Williams is, I feel like, a lot more consistent from DeAndreighton. We've seen the whole stuff with DeAndrean as far as the crunch juice, which I know I tease a lot that I joke around about. And as far as him trying to find a way to get self-motivate, all those different types of things. If the Lakers, you tell me if the Lakers can't get a price that they got for DeAndre Aden and try to get that for Robert Williams, that is, and again, it's not really saying much,

but it is an upgrade. It is an upgrade because Robert Williams is a better defender, and you don't have to self-mote. You don't have to motivate a guy like Robert Williams. He's already self-motivated. So I think if DeAndre Aden were to opt out of his player contract, I would be like, okay, good, because you're giving Lakers even more a leadway because they were already skeptical, even trying to bring you back in the first place.

This gets to an interesting way, just before we even get into Robert Williams or whoever else could be a better option than Aiton, how you view Aiton's season in and of itself is interesting. Because I think, DeAndre, you're correct. On balance, I think he had a solid season, particularly when you take into account for $8 million. Like he gave them $8 million worth of production.

on balance. And some of the highs were actually pretty high. In particular, most of the Houston series, I thought Aiton played really well. The lows, like there were a couple months, January and February, which Jackson Hayes was arguably outplaying him. So it's all over the place.

But on balance, it was solid and $8 million worth of center. The problem, though, is the Lakers had been hoping that he'd outplay that contract. and like dramatically outplayed to a point where he's, he's definitely opting out and the Lakers are put to a decision because he could actually have a market. That is not going to be the case. Like whether he opts in,

ops out, I don't think D'Andre Aiton is going to have a strong market this offseason or like a serious bidding war type market because of everything that we talked about and just his general reputation. How much better, though, they can do than Aiton, or do they go center by committee if it's not like a true established starting caliber, 30 minute a night guy?

You know, do they cobble together three different options that they could play for either different looks or just to sort of reinforce against injury, that sort of thing? That's going to be really interesting. but like Aitin played just well enough that you could talk yourself into the idea, well, if he opted in, he could be useful

and played just badly enough that to D'Andre's point, you could find a way to get over his absence in about 10 minutes. Emotionally. If he's not on the court, emotionally. DeAndre's like, that's nine minutes longer than I would need. Just see, look at his face going,

10 minutes? Really you think it's going to take me 10 minutes? I look at it this way. Because I know you're not wrong, Andy, in the evaluation, but to some degree, it's like, okay, like you were hoping to get like this crazy good steal, like this deal where like you got an all-star kind of guy playing for 8 million. That was like the, the, I don't want to say fantasy projection, but that was like the truly like best case scenario, like everything clicks, whatever. And he didn't hit that. There's no question that he didn't give it. But then I think you do have to sort of evaluate it the season based on, okay, what did he give you based on the number of what you were paying him? And for next year, you really have to look at all that.

So because now you put kind of the sort of the fantasy away and you say, if he can play for most of season or half the season or three quarters of the season like he did in that stretch where the lakers were really going well where you know the numbers were good the attitude was good the motor was good and all that stuff that guy's definitely worth a lot more than eight million dollars and so i look at this from an asset allocation thing because we spent a ton of time in the in the big episode for monday trying to figure out like how the lakers are going to put all the pieces together where um you have limited funds to do it especially if you bring LeBron and Austin back.

So if Aiton opts out and you want to get a center that's better than Aiton, I agree that there are some out there, at least from a game-to-game standpoint, Robert Williams is going to be less flaky and, you know, quirkiness eventually gets a little old. I think you're not going to get that from Williams. But the 59 games that Williams played last year was more than he had played in a long time. I don't think he's ever played more than 65. The 59 games were, I believe, more than the last three seasons combined. It's crazy.

And it was 59 games with no serious injury. That was purely, we're just doing maintenance to keep it so this guy can play. Average 17 minutes, so I don't think he's somebody that you can play for more than 20 a night and expecting to be able to be on the floor. So if you don't have, if you want to get Williams, you maybe need someone else too. So next I want to get into like what this does to the Lakers finances if you want to try to replace Ait with someone better. So we'll do that next.

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If I could drop Walker Kessler onto this roster, I would. but even if I could, it's going to cost me, you know, $35 million. I would probably do it, but Utah is not going to let me. And so this question of asset allocation, if you were confident that the Lakers could get what they got last year, maybe even, you know, 15% more consistent, I'm going to say, you know, 50, but, you know, just a little bit more consistency, something that looks like March. that you can really make an argument that's a better use of your resources because if you let Aiton go you're going to have to spend probably twice as much to get a guy that you think is better

and then what do you do with all the other holes that you have around the roster and honestly I mean John Aiden can make that case to what Andy is bringing up as far as his performance let alone that Houston Rocket series he did a really, really good job on Alpern Schengen. He was very good. On both ends, he was very good. Both ends of the basketball court in that series against Houston Rockets, DeAndre Aiton was really, really effective. And I think that's why if there's reports and stuff like that are true of the possibility

of him opting out of his contract, he's going to let alone talk about that series because Alperin Shingun, an all-star, and Hayton held his own against him. But it's tough because, you know, the name of Robert Williams gets brought up and then also the name of Mitchell Robinson. But Mitchell Robinson is also another guy who's what, injury history. Mitchell Robinson can't stay healthy as well. So when you start to look at that as far as you can't get a guy like Walker Kessler because Utah has an ability to match that offer, if they were to try to offload for him, the amount of stuff that they're going to try to ask out of Lakers to trade away Walker Kessler is going to be a lot. So then you start to look at it, okay, now your options are starting away a little bit low.

Do you want a guy in DeAndre Aden who possibly could give you what? Like you mentioned 15, 20 percent more and actually stay healthy on the basketball court compared to a guy who you might have spent a little bit more in a frequency and a guy like Mitchell Robinson or Mitch Robinson or Robert Williams, knowing that they can't really stay healthy that much as well. So it's like you're in this pick and choose situation. And so if that's the case, I'm not going to lie. may have to lean more towards DeAndre Aitem's side.

I sold him, didn't I? I sold to you. Just being real, man. Well, what gets interesting about this, though, DeAndre is like the idea of what are the better alternatives and, you know, how viable are they? Like, if, say, you brought in Mitchell Robinson and Robert Williams, for example, like, you bring them both in, I think they both could be gotten at roughly 10 to 15. million, something like, I think that would be the range for both of them. And you could argue that

just on pure talent and, like, excelling at the things that they're really good at, that Mitchell Robinson and Robert Williams are an upgrade as a tandem over DeAndre Aiton and Jackson, whether Jackson stays on the roster or not. You know, look, if Jackson becomes, say, your third center, then you start looking at a situation where just on paper, you've got three pretty good Biggs. But are you comfortable with the top two guys in Robinson and Williams both having the type of injury history? A lot of similarity between those guys in terms of how to play. But they're both, I mean, Williams is, I think, a more versatile defender than any of the names that we brought up. He's, I think, the most talented probably of any of the guys that we had mentioned. But the injury

risk is real. You know, they've been connected to Daniel Gafford, you know, as a potential trade. If you get Dallas on board, you know, with a new regime trading with again, putting aside that I think Gafford is more of like a luxury backup than a truly ideal starter, he also gets hurt. Like Gafford tends to miss time as well. You know, would you be better off allocating a lot of resources towards making an offer that's too rich for Utah with Kessler or too rich for Detroit with Jalen Duren? But then, and, you know, those guys are, I think, talent upgrades over any of the guys we've talked about, but they're going to be triple the cost. So you start getting into these different decisions.

At least. And you start getting to this different decision area. And if you spend that much on, you know, the top center names, are you going to have enough for anything else? Like you just start getting into these tricky areas where the Lakers being in some ways kind of a blank canvas is glass half empty, a blessing, glass, you know, glass half full blessing, glass half empty, kind of a curse. Like it's not as, the options are not as plentable DeAndre as I think we would hope. Wow, man, I'm really trying to, I mean, B.K. did a good

job of convincing me on this DeAndre Aidan, because I, again, I'm really, really critical. him because you know i is when you don't have you you can't self-motivate yourself to be on the basketball court every single night that's what makes it really really difficult when it comes to me but just all the names that we mentioned so say if they were to try to trade for a guy like walker kessler or a guy like uh jayland durran then that leads what lakers not having the flexibility and the ability to actually win the margins as far as getting more perimeter defenders actually getting more three-point shooters. I will say this, though, if they can get one of those two guys, they got Kessler,

you know, or Duren, they're just their young players, like, that to me, and you kind of have to backfill with everything else, bring back the rest of the team basically as much like that to me is a win. Like I would consider that to be successful, but you're correct in that you are still leaving a lot of gaping holes. Well, that's where this new front office and expanded and with their new rocket scientist and all that. So like, that's where you really hope those guys are great at DeAndre, like you said, winning along the margins or finding finding the low cost opportunity that's going to outplay their

contract. They have a lot of margins. Everything left over is a margin. People talk all the time about the Dallas 2024 finals run with Luca and that being like the model. And sure, if you can replicate it great. But one of the things that made that go that I think, think it's forgotten all the time. Derek Jones Jr. on a veterans minimum, that was one of the best veterans minimum signing it, I think like in the last five or so years. Like they, they knocked that one out of the park. They got incredible value for him. Like they need to win those type of transactions. And I believe PJ Washington, wasn't he still like on a rookie deal at that time? Because he barely, PJ Washington barely got a contract extension. I could be wrong. It was in the low,

I think it was in like the low to mid teens, but it wasn't the current contract. You're correct about that. And so then like you mentioned Derek Jones Jr. They hit on that in the vet minimum. And that's the thing. Like they were able to get. And lively was on a rookie scale deal. And so then you look at that.

And so what the Lakers roster is that they don't have like vet minimum guys. You know what I mean? Like everyone that kind of has a guaranteed contract besides, you know, Rui and, you know, Austin Reeves and LeBron James, those are like the free agents. And so that's where this is just in a tough situation to try to find any single way to win in those margins. And we can quit here in a second. But like my big thing with the centers is that and why I do think Aiton,

something else Aiden offers that somebody like Williams, for example, doesn't. Mitchell Robinson maybe could, but the injury history is real. And some of his limitations as a player are real. Williams can't be a starting center. He just can't. You could start him. I mean, they could literally be a starting center, but he can't fulfill the role of a starting player

playing starting minutes. Probably Robinson, too. Probably Robinson. And that's what I was going to say. I'd be skeptical about Robinson. Jackson Hayes say what you want about the guy. I wouldn't want him to do it. But if you, like, he could play 30 minutes a night.

He's going to be physically able to do it. Aiden can play 30 minutes a night. Like you might want to look for a better option. But I would be really worried if the Lakers went into a season without a center that was capable of playing 30 minutes a game. Like whether you wanted them to or not. And that is my big hesitation with Williams. I think like a scenario where it would be really weird for your backup center to be making less money than your starting center. But I think a scenario in which Aiton picked up his option and Williams was signed as the backup,

in which Williams probably plays in more important minutes and stuff like that. I wouldn't mind that at all because Williams can't start. Can't. And so I like it's it's stuff like that. And I just it's a very much of be careful what you wish for for people who just desperately want eight and out because for eight million bucks. Yeah. You know.

Locked on Lakers on YouTube, Andy, is where you can go find us on a daily basis. And Lakers Talk Daily, of course, is where you can go find DeAndre Hawkins on a daily basis. You can also find a Monday through Friday. Don't look on weekends of the, as the producer of the DeMarco and Travis show on 710 ESPN. Thanks for doing this.

This is fun. And we'll be calling you, as you mentioned. We'll be reaching out in about 36 hours to do this again. Yeah, it's just been a lookup. If I take too long to respond, you guys know why. You're sick of us. That's the reason. All right, we'll see everyone next time.