Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Deandre Ayton Found His Groove Again? Did Postgame Press Conference Mean Anything?

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

The Lakers have an enigma at center, everyone knows that. On Tuesday, Deandre Ayton was a key piece of the team's success in a critical win over Minnesota.  It's fair to say, though, that those results haven't been the standard since about the first five weeks of the year.  It's also fair to say that there are games -- Sunday against the Knicks being a great example -- where Ayton plays well and the numbers don't jump off the page... and people still complain. Likely many who didn't watch the game. What matters for the Lakers, though, is a lot of the eye test stuff. How engaged is he? How quickly is he moving defensively? Is he battling on the boards? Setting hard screens?  That stuff is often going to matter more than the number of points he scores, because on a team with Luka, Reaves and LeBron, there are only so many shots to be had.  But getting Ayton on track consistently is a big thing for the Lakers if they want to move forward.    HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky    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! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNBA 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. 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. Betterhelp This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist.  Sign up and get 10% off at http://BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDONNBA.    5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. 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 FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost.Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to 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 may have turned the corner again. We'll tell you why the center position might be the most important one for the Lakers heading into the playoffs. It'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 everyone for joining Locked-on Lakers. I'm Brian Komeneski with Andy Kaminetsky. You've covered the Lakers for nearly 20 years with ESPN, the L-A-Times, and the athletic.

Appreciate you joining us, no matter how you're getting the show, whether it's Apple, Spotify, maybe you're one of the 37,000-plus subscribers to Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. We appreciate you. However you are finding us. Let's talk a little DeAndre Ait and, Andy,

because not only did he play a very good game in what was a great team victory for the Lakers Tuesday night over Minnesota, certainly one of the best defensive performances of the season. Aiton was very good. in that game and seems to have put together a string of games pretty good on Sunday against the Knicks as well that have been very positive for the Lakers. Not always statistically dominant, but definitely being a rock solid contributor to what the Lakers

are doing. So I want to talk a little bit about Aiton, a curious press conference that he gave after that very good performance in Tuesday's game. And then just a little bit about how the center position itself represented by Aiton is shaping up potentially to be one of the most critical aspects of what the Lakers do going into the playoffs. Yeah, to begin, I'm glad that you mentioned that some of the strong games he's had of late are not necessarily statistically driven. Because I think that can often be an important way of measuring Aiton's effect on a game. And that can be determined whether the stats are gaudy or whether they're not gaudy, because there have been times at least where the stats have been bigger,

but the impact isn't necessarily felt as much. But to your point in the Minnesota game, you would not, I believe you had 14 and 12 overall in the game, which obviously is, that's a good showing. But what you would not know unless you watch the game is how much of that was front-loaded, 12 points, 11 rebounds in the first half, and how much of that front-loaded kept the Lakers in the game in the first half, made the game seem salvageable and even eventually winnable during a first half

where nobody other than Aiton could get anything going offensively. The work on the glass, he had, I think, five offensive rebounds in the first half. So just getting the Lakers extra possessions. Aten, I think more than anybody else other than collectively the defense, But just as an individual player, Aiton did the most to make the game continually feel feasible. Like it wasn't slipping away. It was frustrating, but it never felt unwinnable. And that's a huge difference.

It's kind of a litmus test. Like, you know, you can see like, it's something fans focus on. Like, I know, like when I watch games, I do sometimes, especially, you know, when you have the ability to kind of rewind things and, and rewatch a game and all that kind of stuff. like focus on one player and see what they're doing. And one of the guys I've done it all year that I really like to look at is eight just because, you know, it's it's not just always the what he's doing, but the how. And like I do think that people too often will just look at the stats and be like, you know,

six points, eight and sucked, you know, 16 points, eight was awesome. I will generally speaking if he has you know 18 and 12 he was doing all the good stuff that you want him to do um but I think what we need to be able to see from Aiton are more games like you know um like I don't think like the the New Orleans game you know or I'm trying to remember back like you know which one he played where no again numbers didn't jump off the page um but like you notice that he was there. He was moving around. He was doing so. Well, that was the Knicks. He had six points and eight rebounds against the Knicks. I was looking back to game log and I skipped the Nix. He had six points, eight rebounds, two blocks. So if you did not watch

the game, you would not think that Aiton had much of an impact at all. Aitin played really well against the Knicks. But you're not going to know unless you actually are watching. And also not watching, and I think this matters for a lot of people with Aiton specifically, not

watching with the idea of I want Diannri Aiton to confirm my priors, which is he's not reliable. Like that that's the prior that I have. And I'm looking for more evidence that he's just going to be Dianne. And I think that's, that's a huge part of this whole equation. Because like when Aiden,

when Aitin is active, when he's really, you know, really going and all that kind of stuff, he provides an element of, of, you know, scoring on the inside. He is the only sort of traditional,

post threat they have. He scores differently than Jackson Hayes in out of the pick and roll in the sense that you can do many, many more things with Aiton as a screen and roll partner than you can with Jackson. The one thing Jackson does get above the rim

and all that does a little better than Aiton, but that's really the only thing that you can do with Hayes. And so you start to see all that stuff with DeAndre, but even then there is no place on this team for him to average, you know, 18 and 10.

You know, on night-to-night basis, it's going to be really hard for him to get enough shots because he does not go to the line. He doesn't shoot a lot of free throws. And these are things about him that aren't going to change. You know, if you want DeAndre 8 and to score, you know, 20 points a game, you generally need to get him, you know, 15 or 16 shots. Or on a bad team. Right. Or put him on a bad team. And on this team, that's not going to happen. So you can't use the box score. He is a he is a guy that you have to be at least somewhat reliant on the eye test and the little things and all that other stuff. But you can tell the difference. I mean, I've probably

defended Aiton as much, maybe probably a little bit more than a lot of people who cover the team. But I mean, I'm not naive. Like you can tell the difference between when Aiton is locked in and playing well and really focused on what he's doing and when he's not. And you're certainly through February, for example, January and February, way too many games where that part of it was inconsistent. Well, what I think is interesting too, like if you, and then we can break after this and we can talk more about the press conference that got a lot of people's attention, a lot of people reading into it after the Wolves win.

But if you look at Aiton's splits in wins versus losses, In wins, averaging 69% from the field, nine and a half shots a game, almost 15 points a game, 9.4 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, in a little under 27 minutes a game. In losses, just under 61% from the field, seven field goal attempts, nine points per game, a little under seven rebounds, and 26.5 minutes per game. So the minutes are more or less the same in wins and losses. And the stat variance speaks to both the need that we've talked about with if you want to get some of those counting stats that people look for from Aiton often to detract what he did. You're going to have to feed him more.

Like you need to give him the ball more. Like you cannot expect him to on the season shoot more than 67% from the field. Like he's second in the league behind Rudy Gobert for field goal percentage. Like at some point, if you want him to score more, if that's one of the things that you're looking for, and to your point, he's the most versatile score of the big men they have, you do want him to score more. So they need to be looking to feed him more. And we've talked about how Aiton's shot total can often be a bellwether for how much are they moving the ball. It becomes a shorthand for that. The flip side, though, is his rebounding and overall effort can swing a game as well.

And in some of these losses where he's averaging nearly three fewer rebounds a game, I doubt it is unconnected to both the result. And if you looked at these games on a game by game basis, more often than not, they would be the games where it felt like Aiton drifted. So you can look at both. I think that's what makes eight and both at times frustrating, but also kind of fascinating. And you could argue maybe at times misunderstood.

There are reasons, I think, why, that are sort of just things about, he's one of those players that the package that he arrives in doesn't look like what you see on the court in terms of his playing style. And I think that annoys people a lot. I'll explain more about that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos. Deadlines are stacking up. and there is still a job that is open and needs filling and the pressure's on. You need the right hire. This is a job for sponsored job.

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That's QUO.com slash locked on NBA. Quo, no miss calls, no missed customers. To your point, like, I think Aitn is interesting because he is, it is unfair to say that he's not a physical player. because you can't rebound the way he often does. That is a physical act in the NBA. You can't set screens the way he does without being a player who is not afraid of physicality. What he isn't is a physical offensive player.

He is a finesse scorer. And I think that is something that drives people really. He doesn't seem to impose his will. flows around defenders, he pulls up for little hook shots and all that stuff. That's why he never gets to the free throw line. And that frustrates people because it can look like you're not trying as much. You're not being as aggressive.

You're not being, it would be great, I guess, if he were more physical offensively. You know, it wasn't afraid of contact. I'm not afraid is the wrong word, but you understand what I mean. But he's not. like the DeAndre 8 and the Lakers have is the fully formed version of him. I think there was this hope and you know, you and I talked about it going into the season that maybe he would more consistently meet that sort of idealized version of himself on a smaller scale

because of all the stars around him. I don't think that's there. There's something in between, you know, bust and that. And I think that's where the Lakers are trying to. to get him more consistently. But all those games that you mentioned of, like, what happens, the numbers he puts up when they play well, and their record in those games is incredibly successful.

Like, that's good. Like, there is a relationship between, like, he has helped the Lakers win a lot of games this season. And so if they can tap into that more consistently, I think more at 22, 23, 24, 25 minutes a night, as opposed to closer to 30. I think that's what JJ is kind of now sort of angling for. If they can tap into that,

it is, I think, critical for them to have like the type of postseason success that they're looking for because they didn't have centers last year. Right. And then in the meantime, too, when it comes to Aiton and just effort level, engagement, focus and general mentality, his post-game press conference after the Wolves win were, again, Aiton played very well, got a lot. of people's attention because he generally gave a lot of short, clip responses to pretty

run-of-the-mill generic questions, did not seem like he wanted to be there. The presser ended kind of awkwardly, sort of drifted off and was over. He was asked a question about momentum that ironically killed the momentum of the press. Yes. Yes. He basically said, I don't understand what you're asking me regarding like essentially these two strong wins against the Knicks and Timberwolves is their momentum. For what it's worth, this is not the first time nor the last time, Brian and I've ever seen a press conference that ends awkwardly, goes awkwardly, player doesn't want to be there.

What this means, if it means anything. I've been the cause of awkward endings to press conferences. Yes, yes, we both have. Like if you've done this. I'm shutting down. Yeah, if you have done this long enough, you have at some point been the catalyst for shutting this thing down. It's the nature of how this stuff works.

You've asked questions that players didn't like, that they made clear they didn't like. Like this could be anything from Aiton was in a bad mood, unrelated to anything basketball. It could be he wanted to get the hell out of there because the game started late. So it's 11-ish at night. He just wants to go home. It could be D'Andre Aitin thinking to himself, well, the last time I said anything colorful, everyone jumped down my throat. So I'm not giving you all a damn thing.

And even if you feel like, well, D'Andre, the solution to that is just don't say things that are wildly out of pocket, obviously referring to Clint Capellagate and, you know, put yourself in that position. It might be D'And D'Andre Aiton is kind of a quirky odd duck. And I say that not as a criticism. I'm just saying he is kind of an accent. He is a quirky odd duck. There's no question. Seems like a nice enough guy, but he's a quirky odd duck.

There's no question. And it might mean absolutely nothing. The only thing that matters is, was his press conference mood in any way connected to dissatisfaction, unhappiness, whatever, to the basketball taking place and his team? Other than that, I don't think it really necessarily means anything. If he's unhappy in ways that actually impact how he plays, if he's dissatisfied about something, but still. I watch it like two or three times.

It's fine. Like there's very little going on. It's not like he's not super engaged. There are other times he's more bubbly and this and that, whatever. He's not required to give a colorful interview either. And until that last question, though, his answers,

he was answering the questions. He answered the question about, you know, guys finding him in the lane and doing their job. Like he gave sort of the boilerplate answers to boilerplate questions. He wasn't into it. But that's fine. But like this kind of gets to what I'm talking about with Aiden.

There is a, a, a, an element among some people who observe him of you can't win. That I just don't think is fair. It's like it doesn't, DeAndre Aden is not a leader of the team. He is not somebody who's expected to be out in front and be a spokesperson and all that. his press conferences don't matter. If he goes out and plays hard, it doesn't matter if he ever talks to the media. And,

you know, I think there is the same people who are waiting for every inconsistency in his performance, which are going to be there. He is not a player who's going to give you excellent games eight out of ten times. We know that at this point in his career. He is not.

It is why Jackson Hayes and Maxie Clay, are really important. It's why these small lineups are really important. They have to have alternatives on the days where Aiton isn't at his best. But at the same time, I think people do need to recalibrate their expectations around what a good, you know, the role he has on this team and what a good performance is. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. Lakers playing Thursday night against Chicago before getting back into the gauntlet of

difficult playoff matchups. So we'll get you ready for that one and everything coming that's ahead. We'll see you next time.