The Los Angeles Lakers made the bold move of signing Deandre Ayton to a two-year contract after the Portland Trail Blazers bought him out of his contract. Playing for his third NBA team, the former No. 1 overall pick will play with a chip on his shoulder.
Many believe that Ayton has been an underachiever and a locker room cancer, considering he was drafted ahead of draft batchmate and current teammate Luka Doncic. However, former NBA forward Olden Polynice doesn’t see it that way for the Bahamian center.
“I mean, he’s a number one draft pick. They gave up on him. Phoenix started it off. Well, there was a reason why. I don’t care what it was. That’s a number one draft pick. But again, okay, you bring up a great point,” Polynice said about Ayton on the Fast Break podcast.
“If you draft the guy number one and for whatever reasons you didn’t cultivate him to make him not be what he ended up being, that’s on management. That’s on coaching. That’s on all those people. I risked the number one draft pick on you. Now you gave a number one draft pick talent to the Lakers,” he added.
Los Angeles Lakers News: Luka Doncic fully trusts the team’s front office, per source
Like Deandre Ayton, Luka Doncic is all about winning an NBA championship for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Slovenian star reportedly trusts the front office to keep building a roster that can get it done.
“He stresses every single day that his goal is to win a championship,” a source close to Doncic told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “He trusts the front office to do their part, and he trusts what they’re building.”
In his first 28 regular season games in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform, Doncic averaged 28.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 1.6 steals on 43.8 percent shooting from the field.
