{"id":157475,"date":"2025-07-09T04:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T04:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/157475\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T04:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T04:48:10","slug":"newest-laker-deandre-ayton-is-ready-to-prove-doubters-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/157475\/","title":{"rendered":"Newest Laker Deandre Ayton is ready to prove doubters wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Deandre Ayton<\/a> stood with his hands in his pockets, his all-black attire \u2014 from the suit to tie, shirt and shoes \u2014 a measured look for the newest member of the Lakers<\/a>. His eyes were mostly down as he answered questions about how he\u2019ll fit with the team and how he\u2019s driven to prove his naysayers wrong.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Ayton fell to the Lakers after he was bought out of his contract from the Portland Trail Blazers, opening the door for him to agree to a two-year, $16.6-million deal.<\/p>\n

The two seasons he spent with the Trail Blazers were not as good as the time he was in Phoenix. His production dropped<\/a>. The number of games he played dropped.<\/p>\n

That led to the narrative that Ayton hasn\u2019t lived up to his potential. That he played consistently enough at a high level. That he doesn\u2019t give his best effort all the time.<\/p>\n

When Ayton was introduced to the media Tuesday, he didn\u2019t shy away from the criticism.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a 7-foot center who the Lakers need to be at his best at all times this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost definitely. It fuels me,\u201d Ayton said about criticism. \u201cIt fuels me up completely. And it\u2019s a different type of drive that I\u2019ve been wanting to express for a long time. I think this is the perfect timing, here in the purple and gold. And it\u2019s a platform that I cannot run from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can show what I really am and just be around some greats to really emphasize that for me as well. It is a lot of fuel in me to prove to the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayton played only 40 games last season for the Trail Blazers, missing a lot of those because of a calf injury. He averaged 14.4 points per game. During the 2023-24 season with Portland, he averaged 16.7 points over 55 games.<\/p>\n

Both of those seasons were short of what Ayton did while with the Suns in 2022-23, when he averaged 18.0 points and 10.0 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Ayon was asked if the questions were fair about his motor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like at the end of the day, I\u2019m on the court and I\u2019m supposed to perform,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just different routes with organizations, whether you want to win or not. I just took my route where I want to win. When it comes to wins, you play hard when you know everybody\u2019s goal is to win. You do everything you\u2019re supposed to do or can do to win. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just been trying to put in as much work as I possibly can. When I\u2019m on the floor, I want to really just show the world and prove to everybody that I am a winner. Any position I\u2019m in, I just want to really win and sacrifice the way I did coming into this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayton will have Luka Doncic and LeBron James to help push him along and hopefully tap more out of his potential.<\/p>\n

Doncic averaged 8.1 assists per game last season and James averaged 7.8 assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey both average about nine assists over their career span, and just the type of players they create with their teammates,\u201d Ayton said. \u201cThey turn them into superstars, they make them bigger than their roles, they make them very important on the floor. Just seeing that and finally getting the chance to go in and experience that would be big for me. Just getting me back to my full form of how I used to play, you know, coming up and being a part of the [NBA] Finals. It\u2019s those playmakers I\u2019m used to having around me that\u2019s leading to wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers also introduced Jake LaRavia<\/a> to the media. He played a season with the Sacramento Kings, averaging 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He shot 47.5% from the field and 42.3% from three-point range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deandre Ayton stood with his hands in his pockets, his all-black attire \u2014 from the suit to tie,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5061,7,1586,29796,29798,142,10848,300,185,368,29797,6,65,471,3039,2084,1141],"class_list":{"0":"post-157475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-assist","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-deandre-ayton","11":"tag-different-type","12":"tag-doubter","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-game-last-season","15":"tag-lakers","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-luka-doncic","18":"tag-many-way","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-point","21":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","22":"tag-rebound","23":"tag-season","24":"tag-time"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114821470920305627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}