If Luka made Jaxson Hayes look like a serviceable center for the majority of last season, just how good do you think he can make DeAndre Ayton?

50 comments

  3. So good it’s gonna trick me into buying an autonomous jersey before a Luka jersey.

  4. I ve seen him played in suns, dude luka roasted ayton but forsure since they will be in the same team, im expecting lots of lob threats

  7. Best case is Ayton playing like the 20/10 guy he should’ve been his entire career thus far.

    Honestly, I’d hope his main focus and point is simply grabbing rebounds because that’s where he’s really needed most.

    I think as long as he can average above 10 rebounds on the season, it’ll be a successful run.

  8. All I can say is look how good Luka made Gafford on Dallas. At one point in the playoffs Gafford made 20-some straight shots, almost all lobs and passes from Luka.

    Ayton is legit better than Gafford, so I think paired with Luja Ayton could have his best season as a pro.

  9. the worst Ayton will be is a 15/10/1 guy. With competent passers, he can be a 19 ppg guy.

    19/10/1.5 is an all star.

  11. Best season as a pro. I want 18-12 or 13 boards. If he’s locked in. He’ll have a 9 figure contract next summer

  12. I think that is what talking heads are missing.  Motivated Luka, Ayton  & Smart super motivated trying to prove their value & AR wanting a big contract.  Defense is mostly effort & that sounds like the formula!

  13. It’s all up to Ayton. He’s playing with LeBron and Luka guys who have made the likes of Mozgov and Hayes look like credible NBA rotation players on offense. Ayton has all the tools to put up 20 regularly with these 2 guys feeding him the ball along with Austin taking so much attention from the defense.

    Will he dig deep and make sure to do all the other stuff though? He can “sleepwalk” to 10 boards a night but will he fight to try to get that up to 12, maybe 14? Will he get up out of bed ready to play through a painful toe, or a banged up arm? Will he find his way to work through bad weather or a protest or a brush fire?

    If he does the latter he stands to make himself some really good money and gain a huge influx of world wide followers/fans. So it really is all there for him, he’s got the environment: two all time great playmakers, a complete lack of internal competition for his minutes and a massive stage all to showcase his skills.

  15. Honestly I don’t understand why they’re even gonna make us play the actual games

  20. He made DeAndre Jordan look like an All-Star in Dallas. Now he’s upgraded to Ayton. This will be the new Shaq-Kobe duo. No pressure.

  21. Seriously, Ayton will look perfectly solid. Great sometimes. Subpar other times. But otherwise way better than what Lakers had. Plus, Ayton is playing for a contract. I think we will see a very good version of Ayton this season, even if he’s not an HOFer. He’s definitely good; average effort on defense but I think Luka and LBJ will lock him into focusing more as they are ultra competitive team oriented and pass first players. Other than an older version of Paul, he’s never played with lead dog guys like that. I am expecting a great season from Ayton. 17 PPG, 11 reb, 55-60% shooting, lots of dunks and some good minutes against the bigger body centers which lakers could not handle last season. Ayton’s a Total plus in my opinion even if he’s not as good as he should be because his motor isn’t always running in first gear.

  22. Elite on offense.

    Ayton will feast on lobs and should have good looks from mid range, where he’s good at shooting from.

  25. People forget LeBron and AR are both great lob creators in the PnR and honestly even Smart sometimes!

    We have some good opportunities ahead if we can be tough enough and get some 3s from Laravia

  28. While he’s not in the same tier as AD, Ayton is above average for a center – Luka will unlock this guy this season.

  29. I just want him to be a better Derrick Lively. If he just finished lobs and cleans the glass the team will do great.

  30. I mean did ayton not play with arguably the best passer and pick and roll player in CP3?

  31. He played with CP3 and y’all saw what happened… expect nothing different from him with luka

  32. Luka made us think Jax was a starting 5 for the playoffs lol I have high hopes

  33. Luka wasn’t here for the majority of the season. But yeah I get the point.

  34. I don’t think anyone can make Hayes look serviceable lol but Ayton is miles above him and I believe in Luka so it should be a fun show to watch.

  35. It’s up to DA how good Luka can make him.

    Call me negative but I’ve never seen anyone as unmotivated as him in my life, zero hustle up the court, like wtf. Entirely unprofessional.

    The “LeBron Effect” isn’t some magic wand or whatever. In fact, LeBron can be highly critical of his teammates, and if you don’t hustle or play smart, or you badly miss wide open shots, it’s over.

    Even if we win 67 games, there will be challenging times that will test us as a team, so it’s anyone’s guess how DA will respond. We’ve seen these challenges many times in the Kobe/Shaq era, and we were able to overcome them together to win 3 rings.

    But it wasn’t easy at all.

    We’ll see how things shape up this season but I’m keeping my expectations very low.

  36. There’s no way this isn’t a bounce back year for Ayton right? 19/11 on the way

  37. I mean he will look great on offense. Frankly any big who can screen, slip, and jump will look really good with Luka. What they really need from him is elite defense. I think he has the tools to do it.

  38. alot of this is really up to Ayton, he’s got alot of upside, but is he gonna be inspired by Luka’s transformation and buy in or weasel out again?

  40. honestly ayton on his own talent can be a 20-10 guy with good defense, the issue is his effort. Ive gone to games and he doesn’t look engaged. he was the last guy out for warm ups and the first one to leave from warm ups. needless to say he didn’t play well those games.

    The postive side is that he is likely going to fully ball out to try and get a new fat contract so he might be on his best behavior and could put together a special season with the lakers.

  41. All-star level. Remember, he’s not just playing with Luka. Ayton is also playing with LeBron.

  42. True. I was so sick of hayes smiling after every lob acting like he was doing something.

  44. If Ayton stays motivated for half the regular season and locked in during the playoffs, he’s going to be a huge gamechanger for us. We kinda hung in there with the WC finalist Wolves in all our games. It was the lack of a playable big man that wore us down. Now that we have one, there shouldn’t be any reason why we can’t get to the WCF at least with a healthier, motivated Luka. And a 18/10 center in Ayton (if he’s locked in). We’ll still want to pick up at least one or two more playoff rotation players somehow. If that happens, we have as good of a chance as any team in the West at making the Finals.

  45. The lakers have a shot to be awesome .

    Also so many divas , risky as hell .

  46. We are cooked, ayton is a bum, bum work ethic,bum mentality, bum skillset. Dude been in the nba like 6 years and he still hasnt evolved from his time at Arizona. Dude hasnt added any post moves,no jumper,hasnt even evolved defensively and he was scouted as being “generational” on that side of the ball. Him and lebron are NOT gonna get along at all.

  48. I know it kinda looks like we have a shitty team, but I actually feel way good about what we got going on right now

  49. Depends on how muc effort Ayton is willing to put in. He could be a 2 way menace if he is willing to try

  50. JJ is an analytics coach. So he’s going to make sure Ayton is put in good situations the majority of the time. And Luka will handle the rest in making defenses collapse on him to get Ayton his touches. I would not be surprised if Ayton had several Gobert game 5 playoff type performances this upcoming regular season

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