JJ Redick gives a blunt answer on his decision to close with Jaxson Hayes over Deandre Ayton: “He was playing better.”

41 comments

  3. I wouldn’t have guessed this even 2 weeks ago, but I think the Lakers may surprise some people by trading for a center like Rob Williams instead of a wing at the deadline.

    Regardless of Ayton’s performance offensively, it’s just clear he’s not the defensive anchor this Lakers roster needs with such bad perimeter defense. They desperately need a real rim protector. Ayton is not that at all, even if he sometimes looks the part for stretches.

  4. 1. Says good things, fanbase is cautiously optimistic.

    2. Slow start with the usual red flags, fanbase says building chemistry.

    3. Two or three games in a row where it looks like it’s come together.

    4. Returns to playing like a potato for 9/10 games, calls for the backup/rookie to get more minutes. Yes, that includes Hayes.

    5. Season ends with a decent (but empty) stat line on paper, but 80% of the fanbase is completely sick of the lack of effort, focus, and the bone headed mistakes.

    Add 5-10% for each season that passes.

    The Lakers are on stage 4

  6. Dude is struggling hard lately. There was one play where he pretty much had his man beat to the ring and instead of finishing strong with a layup he does some stupid spin move into the defender that I think was either turned over or called an offensive foul. A lot of his struggles come from an effort standpoint. Hopefully he’s not injured cause if he’s not then he’s not going to be here after this season.

  8. Teams know that if they stop DA from getting touches early on, he becomes a drifting non-factor.

    So far he doesn’t roll well with Luka. You can see Luka regularly getting blitzed or forced into awkward middies, as DA moves into a weird spot and and gets boxed out. Afunkydiabetic says it best that DA needs to be informed early what is being run, and Luka is too dynamic for him to keep up. AR, Bron and even Smart had better luck getting him involved.

  10. Ayton did not have Redicks back when he told the press the same players are underachieving NOW retribution time from the smartest guy in the room

  14. Guys like Ayton will occasionally have great games and make you think you can “fix him” but lets keep it real, he’s still a young player and this is already his 3rd team for “fit” reasons

    He’s always going to be a “me guy”

    Doubt he stays on the Lakers for long, at least their investment wasn’t much, thats the upside

  15. No. I saw Luka told him to bring back Jaxon when DA let a mem player get a wide open layup. STOP the CAP.

  16. This is a good thing. JJ has been sticking to his lineups and fixed playing time and it hasn’t been working. He needs to play guys who are playing better for longer, and bench guys who aren’t playing well. This should also apply to Luka and Bron. If Luka starts defending like a traffic cone, bench him. If Lebron starts complaining to the refs while forgetting to get down on defense, bench him.

  20. He torched my team in the playoffs years ago and I still don’t think Ayton is about shit, Jax getting mins over him only means one thing, Ayton literally does not care about playing hard

  23. He’s an extremely frustrating player that makes casual fans realize there’s more to being a good center beyond having an 18/10 box score. His bad hands make it really hard to get him the ball. He gets lost on defense a few plays a game. He often doesnt hustle in transition. All of this leads to clunky team play that magically gets better when the backup center comes in. 

  26. Shoutout to the Laker fans who were arguing with me a few weeks ago that Ayton had changed.

    He hasn’t. Same guy he has always been. Will look good and locked in for a few games, but will then disappear completely.

    Ok for what the Lakers are paying him. But given their weakness at center, Laker fans will hate Ayton before the end of the year.

  33. Hayes has several bad plays on defense that make you want to send out multiple first round picks for any decent big available on the market, but he’s arguably the best vertical threat in the league. The guy finishes lobs regardless of where the ball is thrown. Also like how he emphasizes any dunk he gets. Gives the team and crowd some life. 

  35. As a Suns fan I’m kind of an outlier and will always have a soft spot for Ayton and cheer for him but he is resorting back to his usual self.

  38. Remember when this sub was sucking ayton off and saying how great of a center he is with Luka. Pepperidge farm remembers.

  41. Ayton looks out of sync lately. People talk about Luka but ayton has been a nonfactor out there. He has had two games where he got 10/2 and last game where he was almost a nonfactor

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