Much has been made this summer about how the Los Angeles Lakers are doing all that Luka Doncic wants, making him the centerpiece superstar and shunning LeBron James. Yet for all of that hullabaloo, the Lakers' most significant addition doesn't even grant Luka his No. 1 wish.
It is hardly a secret that Luka Doncic loves to play basketball with a rim-running center. He took a rookie and a ho-hum veteran center in Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford and lobbed his way to the NBA Finals just two seasons ago. Sorry Mavericks fans, but it's true: Dallas and Doncic were in the Finals just 14 months ago.
The Lakers knew this; just hours into Doncic being a member of the franchise, they agreed to a trade to add Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams. They (probably wisely) backed out of that deal due to some concerning medicals, but it left them without a starting-caliber center on the roster. Jaxson Hayes fit the archetype, however, and he had some impressive performances catching passes from one of the league's greatest passes.
Heading into this summer, it was unclear how the Lakers were going to add a starting center, but everyone knew they would do it; it was a glaring need on the roster and the most important thing on Luka's wish list.
On the surface, the Lakers did just that, signing Deandre Ayton. The much-maligned center is a former No. 1 pick and went from being overpaid on a max deal to being something of a bargain at $8 million this season. He should provide size on the interior, efficient scoring and consistent rebounding.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, for Luka Doncic and ultimately for Ayton himself, he isn't actually the kind of center that Luka likes to play with.
Deandre Ayton is not a rim-running center
In 2023-24, Dereck Lively II shot 74.7 percent from the field, in large part because he took nearly all of his shots right at the rim. Of his 221 made field goals that season, 141 of them were dunks. Over half of his field goal attempts he threw down into the net. Overall, 57.1 percent of his shots came within three feet of the rim.
Daniel Gafford, the second member of that two-headed center monster, shot 78 percent from the field once joining the Mavericks in 2023-24. 46.2 percent of his overall field goal attempts were dunks, and 72 percent of his field goal attempts overall.
Both players thrived using their gravity to roll down the paint and catch passes from Doncic. 96 percent of Gafford's non-putback two-point attempts were assisted per pbpstats.com; essentially, if he wasn't grabbing an offensive rebound and putting it back up, he was shooting off of a pass, and his most frequent assister was, of course, Luka Doncic. For Lively, 98 percent of his non-putback twos were assisted. They fit into the system perfectly and thrived within it.
The story for Deandre Ayton is entirely different. Over his last two seasons, Ayton has shot a perfectly fine 56.9 percent from the field. He is a more skilled offensive big than either Lively or Gafford, with a deeper bag of flip shots, floaters, short jumpers and even midrange shots. He can certainly do more with the ball -- but that's not exactly a strength when paired with Luka Doncic.
Just 13.6 percent of Ayton's shots the last two seasons were dunks, and 34.4 percent of his shots came within 0-3 feet. Even when he had the ball at the rim, he was more likely to make a finesse move than go up with power. That's why he had a free-throw rate of just 11.4 percent, a truly abysmal number for a player of his size and usage.
Ayton still needs to be fed to set up his shots; he isn't creating them himself. He just doesn't put himself in a position for those to be high-possession shots, nor does he operate with much gravity. 90 percent of his 2-point non-putbacks were assisted, putting him in the gray zone of not creating his own shots but not excelling as a finisher.
Perhaps the problem is that Ayton didn't have an elite setup man in Portland? That's a reasonable approach, but the numbers don't get much better. Just 31.3 percent of his shot attempts were within 0-3 feet in 2022-23, his last season in Phoenix with Chris Paul. His actualy field goal percentage was better, speaking to Paul's ability to elevate his teammates, but Ayton wasn't an appreciably different player.
Luka Doncic loves to operate in the midrange, able to unleash his stepback to move back into a 3-pointer or burrow into the defense and open up a pass to a teammate. He loved working with rim-running centers in Dallas. Could the Lakers force Ayton to play a similar role? Perhaps, but it would be pushing Ayton out of his comfort zone. He is not the sort of player to embrace a low-touch role and trust a teammate to feed him.
Luka Doncic had one thing at the top of his wish list. The Lakers failed to deliver. And while Doncic is locked up for years to come, it doesn't bode well for this team leveling up enough to contend in the Western Conference.
