Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Deandre Ayton Scouting Report! Will the New Lakers Center Thrive After Disappointment In Portland?

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

Deandre Ayton has been a polarizing center since nearly the moment the former first overall pick began his NBA career. While the raw talent is undisputed (and to be fair, often on display), questions about Ayton's desire, professionalism, and true passion for the game have dogged him for years. He's also been a regular scapegoat for underwhelming seasons taking place while he was a member of the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers. Is this fair? Unfair? A bit of both?To get a better idea of Ayton as a player, a person, and a professional basketball employee, Andy talked with guests Mike Richman (Locked On Blazers) and Sean Highkin (The Rose Garden Report), both of whom have covered the team for many years and had a front row seat for the center's time in Portland.Hosts: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, with special guests Mike Richman  (Locked On Blazers) and Sean Highkin (The Rose Garden Report)Segment 1: Mike Richman talks Ayton.Segment 2: More with Mike Richman.Segment 3: Sean Highkin talks Ayton. Support us by supporting our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's up? It's a locked on Lakers for a Thursday. What can the Lakers expect from DeAndre Aiton, good or bad? We've got a scouting report for the new Lakers center coming up next. You are locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. And thanks for making Locked on Lakers, your first listen every day, Monday through Friday, wherever you get your podcasts, always free, never behind it, paywall. And for the sickos who like to watch, Locked on Lakers is on YouTube, a community of over 36,000 subscribers, really fun, engaged, often hilarious, very smart, leaving us comments that we try to implement in different shows.

We take your questions, all sort of stuff. However, you are taking in Locked on Lakers, whether audio, video, both, we very much appreciate you being part of the Locked on Lakers audience. I'm Andy Komenetsky, my brother Brian and co-host is still on vacation this week. And as part of our rotating slate of guests, I'm going to be bringing you today a scouting report on DeAndre Aiton, the Lakers New Center. Going to talk with Mike Richmond from Locked on Blazers. Also, Sean Hiken from the Rose Garden report. Both guys provide great Blazers coverage.

They've been covering the team for a long time. As always, going to ask some similar questions to try to see. what type of consensus or disagreements form. And that's what's coming up. We're going to begin with Mike Richmond from Locked on Blazers. Before we get into the particulars of DeAndre Aiton, the offensive strengths, defensive strengths, weaknesses, all that stuff. How would you describe just the DeAndre Aiton experience in Portland?

I mean, I would say he probably had the two worst seasons of his career with the Trailblazers. So, like, part of that comes, like part of it's like, He just wasn't very good. Some of that is supporting cast. I'm pretty sure Luca Donchich will be a little bit better than the point guards he played with in Portland. I'm going to go out of limb and just, I'm going to say he's like a better pick and roll operator

than 20-year-old Scoot Henderson, among others. LeBron's not terrible at it either, for that matter. Oh, they still have LeBron James? Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah, like, yeah. Last I checked, he's solid at running a pick-and-roll. Yeah, and when, and when Aiton played with Chris Paul,

he was fantastic, right? He was an elite pick and roll guy. So I do think some of my sort of, you know, I didn't love the D'Andrean experience. I don't think it was very good. But some of that, like, is context-driven. He just didn't have the teammates that he needs. And I think that's some of the, how I would describe the experience is that he is dependent on context.

He is talented, but he is so much more dependent on how he is used and how he is deployed more so than other talented players. And if he is put in the wrong context, he can look really bad. And if he's put in the good context, he can look very effective. Yeah, it's interesting because there's a lot that has surrounded DeAndre Aitin, both in Portland and just his career in general, like motivation, motor, focus, desire, that sort of stuff. And without excusing anything that went on lacking that in Portland, because ultimately professionalism is self-driven and it's on Aiton to be a professional just for the sake of it, he talked during. his introductory press conference about with the Blazers, there's a lot of losing kind of a fuzzy direction. It had affected him adversely. Like, how much do you think just the environment led to

some of those elements? Like it not, it just being sort of a weird place for him and like a weird atmosphere for him and for the organization in general. Yeah, there's something to that for sure. There's something to that. I will say he showed up in Portland and said, said, you know, I'm dominating. It's what I do. And he said all the right things. And he was so happy to be free from Phoenix. He said, it felt like I got drafted again. And in his early days with the Trailblazers, he said all the right things. And then he came out and was horrendous for his first 30 games in a Trailblazer unit. He was awful in his first 30 games in a trailblazers uniform. And some of that was, I don't think the coaching staff knew how to use him. But, but I,

like, yeah, I think it weighed on him a little bit. And then he got hurt early in that, about 30 games into his first season and missed six weeks or so missed a bunch of games. And then he got kind of ice storm. He didn't make it to the arena. There's no ice in L.A. He'll be all right. But better weather than Portland, too, among other things. It is. So, like, I do think, like, that can weigh on a guy.

But I also think, like, isn't it your job if you're one of the good players? to help the team win. Like at some point, it is personal responsibility to impact the game. I find it funny where it's like, I'd rather be in a winning situation.

Yeah, so would everyone else, but like, you aren't, your actions are not independence of those things. So I think, I think that's worth highlighting is that he was not very good

and also he was in a bad, the team was bad. Well, it's interesting too because you brought up saying the right things in his introductory press conference with Portland. And I thought he said a lot of the right things

in L.A., as well. And, you know, I don't know DeAndre Aitin at all. So I can only judge him based on his words now because there's no other opportunity to judge anything else. But one of the things that was very clear is that he knows he is not seen as a winning player accurately, not accurately, maybe a little bit of both. And it clearly bugs him. Like he does not like that perception. So if nothing else, he does have an opportunity, I think in this situation to change it in ways that he's not had for a few years. Yeah. And also, when he joined the Trailblazers, they were not very good. And they were transitioning from Damien Lohard and, like, they were, they were like a bad team that was like

aiming to be bad. And now he's joining a team like, I don't know internally if the Lakers think they can win a championship, but I think like in general, they're one of the teams that, you know, they're on like, they're in like the second circle of like teams that might be able to win. man, I would put them as. I would not the inner circle of champions, but they're like if things break right, play in the Western Conference Finals and Beyond type of team. I do believe that.

At minimum, I was going to say a minimum, they see themselves as a team that should be avoiding the play and they should be solidly in the playoff mix, that sort of thing. Yeah, I think there's somewhere between like the fourth and eighth, but I also think fourth and eighth will be separated by like three games.

So, you know, it's going to be probably pretty tight. So, yeah, I think they're right in there. If they're a home court advantage team, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Like if they're three or four in the West, it wouldn't surprise me at all. What do you consider his biggest strengths offensively? Well, he's really, really good from the mid-range.

He is, he is, that has been his, the thing that makes him special. He is, by some measurements, one of the great mid-range shooters in the history of the sports in terms of volume and accuracy. He is, when he doesn't have to put the ball on the floor, if you set him up in little pick-and-pops or he can get space and people dare him to shoot from, you know, 15 to 19 feet, he's money. He's really, really good. On shots where he did not dribble this season, he shot 60%.

Some of those are dunks, obviously, but like when he can just, when he can just shoot the ball, he can and doesn't have to make moves, he can be very, very, very good. And if you don't make it, put the ball on the floor, he can be very, very good. I think there's more to his pick and roll game than we've seen. He was really good with Chris Paul, an all-time great pick-and-roll operator. I think he'll be really good with Luca Donchich, who I'm just going to go out on a limb and say, all-time great pick-and-roll operator.

And LeBron James, all-time great pick-and-roll operator, a 40-year-old adult, like for sure. So I think the mid-range game is really what sets him apart, that touch, that true shooting touch from the mid-range. But I think there's more that he didn't show in Portland that he can show with the Lakers. You mentioned that screen and roll game. And, you know, if you look at his number. numbers, his percentages off dunks, in particular off lobs for dunks. They're very good. How was he as like a rim runner, finisher, that sort of thing? Not particularly good, but also it's like,

it's Amfrey Simon's running a pick and roll. It's just not the same thing. He's not, he's not a high level operator there. Like, he can score out of pick and roll, but he's just not a high level operator. There were times when he was better, and I think him and Scoot Henderson developed a little bit of chemistry, but also like DA's seasons kept getting cut short by injury. Like availability was a problem for him. So he didn't always have a ton of time to mesh and play with guys. He's, he's, there was, I would say he was not particularly good at it with the Blazers, but I think there is more to unlock. It's interesting too, like, because motor and desire is such a persistent theme and talking point detraction with Aiton. And again, I think there's some validity to

the detractors, but at the same time, he has always been his entire career really prolific on the offensive glass and as a rebounder in general. And we tend to associate rebounding with hustle and grit and desire. Like, does he just make this look easy? Is he stepping into these boards or is there like kind of like a dichotomy and like a complexity to DeAndre Aidan? Yeah, I mean, I think it's the second part that he is a complex figure, right? I think, you know, he had some effort stuff in Portland, for sure, some effort and consistency stuff. And I think a lot of the reporting, particularly in a couple different pieces from the athletic, talking about how he was just like unprofessional and late to stuff. A lot of that was early in his tenure.

I can't speak to all of the reporting the athletic, but I did hear some whispers, independent of that, about just sort of like tardiness to team flights and stuff like that early in his tenure. That's a different thing. That's a lack of professionalism off the court. on the court I think like sure his focus can wane a little bit but like I think a lot of his challenges are skill based more so than they are like truly focused based like I think a lot of the things where people are like I wish he was better it's like well yeah he doesn't really dribble or pass okay like if he could do that he would be a different type of player like but but I don't think it's always focused with him I think that's an easy sort of I think that's an

easy narrative to run with although there is some validity to it and as a rebounder like He's really big and strong. And he's really big and strong. He's not a particularly good defensive rebounder, but he's not. He's been much better over his career than he was in Portland. And he can be an elite offensive rebounder. Like he's fine at him to be, and sometimes very good. And coming up more with Mike Richmond from Locked on Blazers.

Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandall. Summer Sports are in full swing. And whether you are about baseball and the lights, golf on the greens or high-stakes, soccer action, Fandul is the best way to make every game more exciting. already following the action, so why not make it a little bit more interesting with Fandul? You can get it on the game while your friends are hanging out of the beach, getting sunburned like a bunch of losers. It's easy to use fast to pay out and makes even regular season games feel like must watch events. And whether you are riding a same game parlay or watching a bet ride into the

ninth inning, fan duel makes it easy to feel like part of the action. If you're new to Fandul, awesome news. New customers can bet just five bucks and you get $150 in bonus bets if that first bet wins. So pro tip pick something obvious. Open the Fandul app today. Visit Fandwell.com to get started. I mean, is it really that big of a disaster if it's the ball on the floor? Oh, okay. So 71% of his shot attempts come without him dribbling. Last season, 71% of his shot attempts came without him dribbling. Another 16% came with one dribble. So if I'm doing that math at home, that's 77% of his shots came with zero or one dribbles, right? He barely took more than two dribbles, more than two dribbles, four and a half percent. Four and a half percent of his shots,

Sam's came with two dribbles. And on those shots, he shot under 35 percent from the floor. Oh. He can't dribble. He just can't create for himself. And that's fine when you play with Luca and LeBron. That's fine. It probably won't come up. He won't be dribbling that much.

But in terms of like when he played on a lesser team, it was like, hey, go do this. We need you to go do something. Yeah, you felt it because he just doesn't have those, he does not have those creation skills. And I think that, like I said, I think some of the stuff that people point to is like, oh, he's a bum.

He's lazy. He's just not very good at some stuff. And that can come off as like, if you, if you, if you keep it narrow for him, take open 19 footers, roll to the rim. He's a 20 and 10 guy, right? And he's a, and like, and the, and the Lakers may have the luxury of keeping it very narrow for him. I would say one of the, one of the longstanding parts of being LeBron's teammate is, boy, does he put you in the hallway? And he says, this is what you do, son. Here's what you'll be doing. And for some gentlemen, they win championships because he puts them in a, type of box in a certain type of hallway. And so like that's not always a bad thing. It's, uh, he makes it, he can make it simple for you. So I, I think, uh, the simplicity may be a strength at some point. Uh, defensively. What are his strengths, weaknesses? I've heard attentiveness is a thing with Aten a lot. Yeah, focus for sure. He got benched and again the, the, so the Blazers lost to the Utah Jazz. I don't know if you recall the Utah Jazz of last year, but they were, um,

outrageous. I mean, I know they were in the league. I don't recall. Yeah. So that jazz team, those Utah Jazz, they beat the Trailblazers by 42 points in Portland. Oh, yeah. I remember that. So like a true nightmare game. Just like a one of those like, oh no, all of it is bad. And Aitin got benched. The jazz came out of halftime, dunk, dunk layup.

And Aiton got benched for the remainder of the second half of just like an absolute nightmare game. So yeah, there's some focus stuff with him for sure. There's some focus stuff with them there. where it's just like, hey, we need you to be more physical. Like you, you need to be like a more attentive defender. I think he can be part of good defensive teams, but I don't think he's an elite enough rim protector to ever be an anchor of a good defensive team.

How does he operate in space? And I ask just because sometimes JJ Redick has used his bigs in space with forwards or even big guards as low men, whether out of necessity or I think at times preference because JJ can get very switch-happy with his space. schemes? Like, can he defend it all away from the basket? Yeah, I think he's, I think people get confused about this. They'll be like, oh, he's really good. Like, he's really good away from the rim. No, he's really good away from the rim for being seven feet tall. Like, he's pretty good,

he's pretty good guarding in space for his size, but it's not like he's this crazy switchable multi-positional defender, right? He's not, he's not that. But he is for a, for like a true five, which he is, he is pretty good guarding in space. I think the Lakers at one, point, I don't know if it hold up for the season, but they were the most switch-heavy team in the NBA. Nobody switched more on defense than them. They were up there. Yeah, they did way too much. Yeah. Well, JJ's pretty smart, but he might be a little too smart. He's go tar heels, but I'm a man of a certain age who grew up in Chappahul, North Carolina. So, but no, I like, James is a really good coach.

But I think he'll be okay in switchy moments. But if you expect him to live out on an island, it's going to get a little bit rough. But he's capable of doing that for sure. You mentioned before the reports from the athletic that brought up some of that stuff with Aiden, a lot of it, I guess earlier in his tenure with the Blazers. All in all, like, how much of a problem do you think he was with the team? like seen as a problem inside the building. So my read on it, and I've shared this on Lockdown Blazers is available, we've ever got podcasts and also on YouTube, five days a week, always free, I know every platform.

But like my read on it is that he was fairly well liked by his peers. Like I don't like I think he's really close with Tolano Banton who's no longer Blazer. I think he had a really good relationship with Timani Kamara. I think they were like, he was legitimately not like, he wasn't like a, I've seen guys who are not well liked and Blazers locker room. I don't think he was that at all. I do not think he was particularly well liked by Chauncey Billups. That's my read. Like that's that's my read on this. You just don't pay him to go away unless you really don't want to deal with it. You know, like they, not that I think at his salary number at 35 million, he was going to ever become magically tradable, right? Like maybe this was always the

outcome is that he was always going to end up waived and yada, yada, yada. But you don't do it in early July unless it's like, we just, like, we were cool. Like, we'll just, we'll figure out, like, we'll figure it out on the back half. Like, if you clearly don't want to work with him. So my read is the frustration with him was probably mostly coaching staff and, and that may be trickled up to the front office. But I don't think among his peers and coworkers, immediate co-workers, that it was that big of a deal. Although, like, there's been some reports that KD and Devin Booker and Chris Paul maybe hated him. So, like, so maybe not every coworker along the way. I mean, look, with all sincere respect to Katie and Beal and whatever, like that Phoenix locker room sounds like there was more than one problem going on.

So it's hard to know. Yeah, I mean, Kevin Durant does, not the show for it, but Kevin Durant does seem like a pretty miserable coworker. I would say he's like a really, he does seem like a talented but miserable person to go to work with every day. Last question for you, do you think this stint in L.A. is going to be successful? Or can't be at the very least? I'll put it like this. I don't think DeAndre Aden will be the problem. Like, I don't think among the many things that may derail the 2025,

2026 Los Angeles Lakers, and there's like, there's, there are several. I don't think, I don't think DA is going to be the thing that gets pointed to. I don't. I think he'll be, I think he'll fit in better with better teammates. I think he's such a massive upgrade over Jackson Hayes that'll be like, You just like put them in the game. Like it doesn't like it doesn't matter.

Like just let them play. It's such a huge upgrade and it has price point. It doesn't it's not it doesn't feel the same as when it's like, damn, 35 million for this. It's like I don't know. What is it? Nine million bucks? Eight million bucks.

Less. Yeah, fine. About eight. Yeah. Yeah. It's like fine. Fine. $8 million for that.

Great. That's awesome. They might even be like an incredible steal at some point. Right. So I think success. I don't know because I think that so much hinges on like LeBron's health and happiness and and all of those things. things that are just so far outside of DA's control.

And so if it does go south for the Lakers this season, I can't imagine that DA will be the reason why. Mike Richmond, the host of Locked-on Blazers, as he said, you can get it everywhere. You get your podcast five days a week, never behind a paywall. Also on YouTube. As always, man, fun to see you. Appreciate the time. Thank you.

Always. Yeah. If the Blazers keep sending flawed but well-known players like Carmelo Anthony and DeAndreight, and I just can't wait every other summer. I'll be back on the show. It's a real treat. All right, coming up next, going to get some more DeAndre Aitin perspective from Sean Hiken, Rose Garden Report. That is next. Before we get into some of the specifics and particulars about Aiton, offensively, defensively, that sort of stuff, how would you describe the DeAndre Aiton experience in Portland?

I personally enjoyed it, I think, more than a lot of people did. like it's it's i because i just i like him as a guy like i i and i think honestly man i think a lot of the stuff about him that's kind of been out there since the buyout and since he went to the lakers and frankly some of the stuff that was out there in the you know you know during during the two seasons that he was in portland i think a lot of that was a little bit unfair and a little bit mischaracterized. And like, like he obviously has his flaws, certainly as a player and also, you know, his level of engagement and level of focus and all the stuff that you kind of heard about. That stuff isn't all coming from nothing. But he's not a bad guy. In fact, he's actually a

really good guy and a guy that everybody likes and, you know, a good teammate and a good, you know, just like a fun personality. And, you know, there's been this, there's been this effort in some corners, I think, since the buyout happened to kind of paint him as this malcontent or this cancer that everybody just couldn't wait to get rid of. And I just don't, I don't think that's really the case at all. And, you know, I personally liked him a lot. I enjoyed talking to him. I just enjoy, like, he's, he's a funny guy. You know, he certainly could be moody sometimes, but he's a funny guy. He's kind of a, you know, he kept things light. Now, maybe you could argue that sometimes keeping things light wasn't what was needed. And so there was a little bit of a

disconnect there. But overall, I, you know, as somebody that covered the team for the two years that he was in Portland, I definitely have, on a personal level, at least I definitely have more positive to say about him than negative. In particular, there was the report from Jason Quick at the athletic that cited a lot of anonymous sources talking about. I mentioned like tardiness to team flights and practices, skipping rehab appointments, like this general bad influence and for what it's worth a lot of Aiton's now former teammates publicly took up to him but from what you gathered how much of a problem do you think he was perceived inside the locker room inside those walls if at all I think so the individual stuff in that story I don't think any of

that was necessarily like not true I just think that the way that it was kind of portrayed in the way that it was kind of a lot of just short of normal, you know, low level stuff that was kind of built up into you know, this idea that like everybody just couldn't wait to get rid of him. And I mean, to be fair, they did pay him a lot of money to go away.

Like so it's not like, you know, we love this guy so much that we're going to keep him around. They, you know, A, they paid him a lot of money to go away. They also drafted centers in the first round each of the last two years. So it's not like, it became pretty obvious. So, like, they, when they did the dame trade, and he was one of the pieces that came in from Phoenix in that three-team deal, they did go into it at the time thinking, you know, this is going to be one of our cornerstone guys with a rebuild, you know,

it was a bad situation in Phoenix by the end for a lot of reasons, some of which were his fault, some of which were not. But this was a guy who, when he was like 22, was the starting center and defensive anchor on a team that made the finals and there's a lot of talent there. and, you know, we think that, you know, there's a lot of upside here still. That was their mindset, you know, going into, you know, when he first got here with the trade. Yeah. Obviously, it ended up not really working out that way. And, you know, he just kind of was what he was in Phoenix, which is, you know, a very talented player. And he was dominant on some nights.

And then other nights you would wonder if he was even out on the floor. And again, some of the focus stuff was just kind of there or not there. And so it was clear that, like, it was a guy they were going to move on from. and so they agreed to the buyout. But this idea, I don't know, to me, to me, the idea that, like, everybody just could not wait to get rid of this guy and he was a problem and everybody hated him. Again, you saw kind of some of the way that some of his teammates have, you know, responded to, you know, some of the reports that have been out there saying that it's not true or any, or that they didn't feel that way about him or any of that kind of stuff that, like, you know, I think, I think there's, like nuances of the stuff. I think the truth is kind of somewhere in the middle. of like, oh, you know, he was his cancer that everybody couldn't wait to get rid of or, oh, no,

he's actually a great guy and there were no problems at all. I think it's a little bit more nuanced than that. Well, it's interesting. You use the word rebuild and talking about the situation that they traded DeAndre Aiton essentially into. And without looking to make excuses for a lack of professionalism or a lack of self-starting, because ultimately that is on Aiton. How much do you think just contextually, whatever issues with focus or drive professionalism could have been in part the byproduct of being in a situation where a lot of young players, not a lot of winning. And him, even though he's not an old player himself, having been to the finals, having been part of more winning teams, he just kind of out of place, like not really the right guy

for that situation. It was just a weird situation the whole way. Like especially his first year because with his first year, it's like, you know, he comes in, you know, Malcolm Brogden also comes in around the same time. So it's like you've got some veterans. They just re-signed Jeremy Grant for a ton of money. That was like kind of a last ditch thing to keep Dane from requesting a trade, obviously not successful because Jeremy was Dane's guy. So, you know, you've got some of those veterans like Anthony Simons is still there. And then on the other side of it, like you've also got Scoot Henderson and Shaden Sharp and some of these younger guys that they, that are really like what they're looking to for the future.

And it was kind of this weird thing where it's like they knew they were going to be bad for the first couple of years of the rebuild because whenever you trade a player as good as Dame and you have a number three overall pick who's replacing him at point guard who's 19. Like it's going to take a little bit of time to be good. But they did not. They knew that like the record, their win-loss record was going to be what it was going to be. But, and, you know, Chaunty Billis was the one driving a lot of this. They did not want to be like, you know, the wizards or the wizards of the last couple of years or like the Rockets before they hired E-May and brought in all those vets. They wanted to have some adults in the room. And so that's why they, you know, they kept Malcolm Brogden enough and they traded for him.

They didn't trade Jeremy Grant maybe when they could have at some point or, you know, some of that. stuff but it was the whole thing was just so disjointed because that beginning of the year like you know opening night anthony simons has a thumb sprain misses six weeks and then you know shade and sharp who's one of their you know he you know young guys are building around only plays 32 games that for that year because he's uh you know he has the core surgery and then d a is just kind of thrust in this thing where it's like he's out there you know he he's getting his numbers still for the most part but you know is it affecting winning it's it's not it's not it's not It's just the whole situation was just weird.

And then, you know, they draft Donovan Klingin in the first round last year in the top 10. And I'll actually give D.A. a lot of credit for this. He never took that as a threat. He never said like, oh, I don't want. I don't like. I'm mad about this. He, you know, was very supportive of Klingin. It was always talking about how great he thought he was.

It was always like talking to him on the bench kind of was helping him, you know, get acclimated to the league. He was great with that stuff. He was like kind of, you know, Donovan's vet. But, you know, this past year, it's like they still have all these young guys. They're trying to develop. but especially towards the end of the year when, you know, they start winning. It's like then, you know, it's just, it's one of those things. They just kind of hadn't really picked which way they were going to go yet.

And they, I, you know, I think that had as much to do. There is certainly a level of like it went like this in Phoenix and it went like this to an extent in Portland. I do think a lot of the Phoenix stuff was very much not on him. Yeah, I think a lot of that more was on Monty Williams than it was on anything else. And Chris Paul and some of the other stuff, which you can probably get. get into it a different time. But I, the whole situation over the last couple of years with the organization, everything's only starting to make a little bit more sense now than it maybe has over the two years that he was here. Taking a look at Aiton as a player,

offensively, a lot of dunks, really high percentages off lobs around the rim, stuff like that. Do you consider Aiton a potentially good partner for Luca, like as a finisher, rim runner, screen roll partner, that sort of stuff. LeBron, too, as well. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think from a skill standpoint and from a talent standpoint, he would solve a lot of teams problems. Like there's, you know, the lob finishing stuff, but he's also a really good mid-range shooter. He can, he's not, he doesn't quite have the three-point range the way that some, you know, some bigs do. But he can pop out and hit a 15-foot jumper. He's pretty, he's actually pretty automatic from that, you know, from that part of the

floor. So on paper, he would be a great fit with, uh, with, with, you know, with those two guys with LeBron and with Lucas. It's just, you know, it's a, it's a question of, are you going to get the fully engaged version of Aiton every single night? And, you know, so far in his career, the end, at two different spots, the answer has been no, you know, maybe, maybe it being outlay and it being the Lakers and him feeling like, you know, this is the chance that he's going to, you know, he's either going to be a minimum guy for the rest of his career if this doesn't work out or he could rebuild his value and get another big contract this summer or next summer like maybe that's going to be the thing that changes it but from a talent standpoint if you get like the best version of dandre

aiden that player we already saw the best version of diondre aton be you know one of the most important players on a team that went to the finals so it's like that player is in there the talent is there it's just you know it's kind of the other stuff to your to your point and not that d'andre phrasing it this way in terms of just money, but during his introductory press conference with the Lakers, it's clear he knows he is not seen as a winning player, fair, unfair, somewhere in the middle, but he knows this, and it's very clear he doesn't like it. So maybe that combined with the idea of this really is kind of last chance to loon for him. Defensively, what do you see as his strengths and weaknesses? And in particular, can he be effective at all in space? Because JJ

often switches Biggs out onto the perimeter, has forwards or guards, his low men, stuff like that. He can be. He has the, certainly has the athleticism. He has the mobility for it. He's definitely more of a, you know, a rim protector than, you know, than, you know, a defender in space. But, you know, he's got the skill set to do a lot of things. I mean, we just, you know, he saw what he did in Phoenix. He has a lot of, you know, he has a lot of things he can't do.

Again, it's just a matter of, you know, what he's. going to get on a night-to-night basis. If you had to guess what would be a motivating factor form if that exists, like in terms of consistent motivation, what do you think it would be? Well, I think it's the contract stuff that, you know, we talked about and kind of his perception around the league. I also think that, you know, we all, I'm sure you guys have covered this extensively. Him and Luca are boys.

They have the same agent. They actually have a really close relationship. I'm sure. I'm sure DA is not upset to. get to actually play with Luca. And you know, you've seen the effect that Luca has had on other bigs. Like, you know, you look at like what, you know, the way Derek Lively's rookie season went or like how great Daniel Gafford was when they traded for him.

And it's like, like, you saw like how, you know, effective like Jackson Hayes was in L.A. And it's like DeAndre Aiton is more talented than any of those players. He's a better basketball player than any of those guys. So, you know, I think Luca is just going to make any big life so much easier that, you know, maybe, maybe, you know, if he gets kind of fed in that way that, you know, that Luke, has the ability to do that. I think that might be something that, you know, that makes it to, you know, where, you know, you get the best version of him kind of on a more consistent basis, maybe than you did with, you know, in Phoenix or in Portland. Yeah, the playmaking definitely helps.

DeAndre talked about in his introductory press conference that the idea of playing with Luca, and he mentioned LeBron as well, it's like a video game. And sounds like something that he's very excited at the prospect of getting, a prospect getting set up by those guys. Last question for you, do you think that this is going to be a successful stint for Aighton in L.A.? I'm kind of in the middle on the two different places. I don't think it's going to be he's the piece that leads them to a championship and he gets a max contract again next summer. I also don't think it's going to be a complete disaster. I think it's going to kind of be somewhere in the middle.

The part that I'm a little concerned about, and you know this obviously being in L.A. and covering the Lakers for a long time is, you know, Laker fans and, you know, Laker media and just that, you know, that city and that, you know, that fan base, everything. There's always somebody to blame that's the easy target, whether it's Darbenham or whether it's Russell Westbrook or whether it's, you know, back in the day, Dwight Howard. There's always somebody that like everybody, whether it's every somebody, every, whether it's a guy's fault or not, like is kind of the guy that people like to just kind of pin everything on. And DA comes in already as such an easy target and he already has the reputation that he has and people feel the way. that they feel about him. And it's going to be so easy for me to see that, you know, if, you know, let's say they go on a two-week, you know, skid or whatever.

And he has one bad game in that skid. Then, you know, you're going to get like the Lakers Twitter spaces talking about how they need to trade him and how he's the guy. In the same way that, like, you know, Russell Westbrook wasn't the reason that the Lakers were good, but he also wasn't like the only reason that the Lakers were bad. But he was the guy that everybody was just pinning everything on. I'm just kind of worried that, you know, that, you know, the DA thing is going to kind of go that same way because people are already kind of predisposed to not, you know, not giving him the benefit of the doubt, some of which I think is fair and some of which I think is not.

So that's the, that to me, that's the biggest concern more than any of the encore stuff. He is Sean Hiking. He is the author of The Rose Garden Report, also the Blazers Insider for Rip City Radio in Portland. Some of the best Blazers coverage out there. He's been doing it for a long, long time. Kind of like me with the Lakers. Appreciate the time, brother.

Thank you very much. always good to talk to you, man. Thanks again to Mike Richmond and Sean Hiking. A lot of really interesting commentary and thoughts on DeAndre Aiton. Curious to get everyone's feedback, make sure to leave comments on the YouTube page or hit us up on Twitter at Cambrothers. One common theme that emerged among many others, but this one really jumps out at me. DeAndre Aitin's stint with the Lakers will likely be as wild a success or as

underwhelming as DeAndre Aiton allows it to be. Both Mike and Sean said, and I agree with them, DeAndre Aiton is really set up to thrive with the Lakers. And does he want to make the most of a really good situation at a time when he needs to capitalize? We shall see. Coming up Friday, going to talk with Isok Franco of the Diggin Basketball Subsdack. He has covered Luca Donchich for a long time, including overseas.

He's going to get his thoughts on the Lakers' hopeful new face moving forward and the best ways to build around him. Again, make sure you are subscribing to Locked on Lakers on audio. Make sure you are subscribing to the YouTube page. Appreciate everybody listening and watching however you're doing. And see you on Friday.