{"id":723960,"date":"2026-05-02T18:27:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/723960\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:27:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:27:33","slug":"lakers-urged-to-cut-ties-with-16-million-disappointment-after-one-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/723960\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers urged to cut ties with $16 million disappointment after one season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lakers urged to cut ties with $16 million disappointment after one season<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have officially reached the Western Conference semifinals after nearly squandering a colossal 3-0 first-round series lead to the Houston Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

However, questions still remain regarding their stability at the center position. Although the Lakers\u2019 27-year-old disappointment has a chance to play his way into good graces with the franchise, Bleacher Report\u2019s Greg Swartz<\/a> believes that the franchise should consider parting ways with him after just one season.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeandre Ayton<\/a> holds a $8.1 million player option for next season,\u201d Swartz wrote Wednesday. \u201cEven though he’s spent the past four years on a max contract, are we sure he’d make more than this as a free agent? If Ayton picks the option up, the Lakers should have already checked on his value around the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finishing the 2024-25 season without a starting-caliber center following their blockbuster Anthony Davis-Luka Doncic<\/a> trade, the Lakers made an effort to bolster their frontcourt depth by signing Ayton to a two-year, $16 million deal in free agency.<\/p>\n

So far, the Ayton experiment in Los Angeles<\/a> has been far from impressive, as the former Phoenix Suns<\/a> big man has been wildly inconsistent with the 17-time NBA champions. Ayton will dominate in the pick-and-roll and as an interior defender one night, and play a disinterested brand of basketball the next.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

That trend was on full display against the Rockets to begin the playoffs, as he was an up-and-down contributor all series (fortunately, the Lakers still managed to take care of business).<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Ayton will be auditioning for a long-term role with the Lakers. If the former lottery pick doesn\u2019t deliver, he may not return to Los Angeles for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers urged to cut ties with $16 million disappointment after one season originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,1586,509,6250,194,251,150,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":["post-723960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-basketball","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-doncic","tag-greg-swartz","tag-houston-rockets","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-suns"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116506397473919386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723960","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=723960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}