The Los Angeles Lakers ended up falling at the first hurdle in the 2025 playoffs, losing in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves. One of the biggest issues for the Lakers in that series was not having a starting-caliber big man, and they plan to get one this offseason. Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey has listed some realistic targets for the team, and one of them is former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton.
The 26-year-old center has averaged a double-double (16.4 points and 10.5 rebounds) for his career. And he’s never played with a creator quite like Luka (post-prime Chris Paul wasn’t quite at that level).
“His volume and efficiency as a scorer could both climb as Luka’s lob threat. And while he’s not known as a great rim protector, he’s an upgrade over Hayes on that end. He’s also better than a lot of other seven-footers at surviving on the perimeter after switches.”
Ayton’s salary would be a bit difficult to match. He signed a four-year, $132 million deal with the Phoenix Suns in 2022, and you do question if he’s worth it at that price.
Ayton averaged 14.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2024-25. Just as it has been the case for much of his career, he struggled with consistency.
There were times when Ayton looked like one of the better bigs in the league, and then there were others where he was flat-out terrible. It was that inconsistency and concerns regarding his motor that led to the Suns deciding to part ways with the Bahamian in 2023.
Could the Lakers get the best out of the man who was selected two spots ahead of Luka Doncic in the 2018 NBA Draft? Well, it’s hard to say. Perhaps playing alongside Doncic will lead to Ayton’s game being taken to another level.
Doncic has made pretty average big men look servicable on the offensive end in his career, with Jaxson Hayes being a prime example. Ayton is far better on offense than Hayes and could revive his career in a way with the Lakers.
Another positive for the Lakers here would be that while they’d have to give up a lot to match salaries, they won’t have to part with significant draft capital. Ayton’s stock isn’t too high at the moment, thanks to his production and salary, which means they would be in a position to make another significant move after trading for him.
This still doesn’t seem like a very likely move, though. The Lakers have never been strongly linked to Ayton, but that could change, of course.
We have also listed out eight other centers the Lakers could acquire this offseason. They’d all be big upgrades on Hayes and would get the team closer to winning a championship.
DENVER — In a series of attrition, the Denver Nuggets have survived in emphatic fashion.
The Nuggets opened an 11-point halftime lead over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday then raced to a 120-101 Game 7 win to advance out of the first round. The blowout caps a grueling, competitive series that swung back and forth throughout.
In the end, the Nuggets had more gas in the tank and will now face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals. The series will feature a showdown of MVP finalists Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Clippers looked like the fresher team early en route to a 26-21 first-quarter lead as neither Jokić nor Jamal Murray managed to make a field goal. But the Nuggets withstood the early run and closed the half with a 37-21 second quarter that ultimately proved to be the knockout blow.
There was no second-half surge from a Clippers team that took control of a Game 6 win thanks to halftime adjustments and a 10-point third-quarter advantage. Back home in the altitude of Denver, the Nuggets kept on the gas after halftime and didn’t allow a Clippers rally to take hold.
We’ve played a lot of these games,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said before the game. “You have to understand, there is a point of exhaustion in these games, especially with the quick turnaround on playing later in L.A. and coming back here and playing a somewhat earlier game, playing seven games total.
“When there’s downs in the games, that’s when everybody has to be closest together, keep each other going. You have to find energy from one another.
The Nuggets withstood an early down period from their two most important players. Early in the second quarter, Jokić and Murray were a combined 0 for 9 from the field. Yet the Nuggets held a 31-28 lead, buoyed by a strong start from Christian Braun and a defensive effort that the Clippers struggled to counter.
Jokić finally found the basket on his sixth field goal attempt of the game, a 3-pointer that gave Denver a 34-30 advantage. Murray’s first basket didn’t arrive until a layup with 3:39 left in the quarter extended the Denver lead to 48-43. Once both found their footing, the Clippers were outmatched.
Denver entered halftime with a 58-47 lead, and Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue opened the third quarter with the same second-half adjustment as he did in Game 6 — putting Nicolas Batum in the third-quarter starting lineup. But the veteran wing’s versatility on both sides of the ball was of no help Saturday night.
A 7-3 Nuggets run to start the third quarter prompted a quick timeout from Lue. A Michael Porter Jr. 3-pointer less than three minutes into the quarter extended the run to 15-3 and the Nuggets’ lead to 73-50.
A Denver crowd that watched the Nuggets blow a 15-point halftime lead in a Game 7 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves last season erupted. There would be no second-half collapse this time and no sudden, shocking exit from the postseason.
Braun, who scored 21 points, spoke after the game about what it meant to play such a big role in a Game 7 victory.
“That’s exactly what we wanted,” Braun said postgame. “That’s the exact moment I wanted. Last year, obviously the team had a missed opportunity. I felt like we should have won. Obviously they were the better team that night. I just felt like there was opportunity left on the table.
“I felt like I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be more. I just thought that in that game I feel like I was playing well and wanted to play more minutes. Everybody wants that. Everybody in the league wants that, and I got that.
As they did in multiple games this series, the Nuggets won without a big game from Jokić — by his MVP standards, at least. Murray was also relatively subdued. Instead, it was a team effort from a Nuggets lineup that’s been hounded with questions about whether it’s strong enough around Jokić to compete at the highest level.
In playoffs, we know that everybody needs to step up,” Jokić said. “Offensively, defensively, energy wise. When the playoffs start, we need to step, and everybody who plays needs to contribute something. Especially today, the guys did that.”
Each Nuggets starter scored 15-plus points, led by Aaron Gordon’s 22. Braun shot 8 of 15 from the field and 3 of 5 from deep. Russell Westbrook tallied 16 points off the bench and again made the Clippers pay for leaving him open while shooting 5 of 9 from the field and 2 of 4 from deep.
Jokić finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Murray finished with 16 points and five rebounds.
After the game, Adelman mentioned Braun, Murray and Gordon while crediting the team effort for optimizing minutes when Jokić was on the bench.
Some of Jamal’s shot-making tonight through contact and AG, what he did attacking the basket,” Adelman said. “It allowed us to sit Nikola longer. And then we actually won those stanzas. And if you do that and then you’re bringing 15 back in, it’s an enormous deal.
Braun didn’t just set the pace on offense. He was also tasked again as the primary defender on 11-time All-Star James Harden. Harden finished with a series-low seven points while shooting 2 of 8 from the field. When the game was over, Harden didn’t speak with media.
“That’s AG and him,” Jokić said of Braun’s defense on Harden. “They wanted to do that. They wanted to pick him up. We are just there back them up and help them in any possible way
