BREAKING: Deandre Ayton Signs With Los Angeles Lakers In 2025 NBA Free Agency

BREAKING: Deandre Ayton Signs With Los Angeles Lakers In 2025 NBA Free Agency | Full Details

[Music] DeAndre Aton has agreed to a deal to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Welcome into this breaking news episode of the Lakers report by chat sports. Jeffrey Cooperstein here with you guys. The Lakers have found their new starting center in DeAndre Aton. Now, the full deals, the full details of this contract is to be announced, but it according to Sham Shirania of ESPN. DeAndre Aton between Portland is buyout with Portland and the Lakers will be making about $34 million this season. I’ll tell you how that breaks down here in just a moment. But grade the signing for me down in the comment section. A, B, C, D, or F? What do you think about the Lakers new starting center in DeAndre Aton? So, like I said, Aiden will be making about $34 million this season, but he did agree to a contract buyout with the Portland Trailblazers where he forfeited approximately 10 million bucks. And all of that combined, the Lakers will be paying him somewhere between 8 and $9 million. Now, I believe this is going into the non-taxpayer midlevel exception that the Lakers had available to them, and that’s how the Lakers will be able to sign Aton while they are over the salary cap. Look, you know, I you know what you’re getting in DeAndre Aton numbers-wise. You know, you’re going to get 12, 13, 14 points. You know, you’re going to get 10 plus rebounds. He’ll give you about a block a night. He’ll shoot 55 plus percent from the field because all of his uh all of his field goals are usually right around the rim. The one thing that with DeAndre Aton is the motor. No one’s questioning his ability. Like last year in Portland, he had a good season where he averaged a block a night. uh averaged 14 and 10, 56% from the field. The only question with DeAndre Hatton is is he motivated? I don’t think he was very motivated in Portland. I think by the end of his time in Phoenix, he was not very motivated either. So, let’s see if him coming to a winning situation in Los Angeles with the Lakers is going to motivate him to play his best basketball because this guy, if he’s on, is could be one of the best centers in the league. He’s got the athletic versatility to be able to switch on offense or on defense. He’s got the uh ability on offense to run the pick and roll with a guy like Luca who is the pick and roll master in this league. If those guys can get him to play basketball to the best of his ability, then DeAndre Aton could potentially find a new home here in Los Angeles. I have to assume this is a one-year deal. At the time of filming, we aren’t exactly sure on what the details look like, but I believe it’ll be a one-year contract for DeAndre Aton. And if that is to be the case, Eightton’s playing on another contract here. If he has a good season with LA, they make it to the second round of the playoffs, maybe the Western Conference Finals, then Aton’s going to get paid again in 2026 NBA free agency. But this is sort of a makeorb breakak year for him. Like if it doesn’t go well with the Lakers, if he has a bunch of contract drama or a bunch of drama surrounding his deal and maybe he isn’t motivated with the Lakers either, then where is he going to be motivated? Like what more can motivate you than being on a team with Luca, with LeBron James in a win now situation where this team is trying to go out there and win the NBA title here in 2026. So I hope this works out for the Lakers. And the one thing I’ll say this, DeAndre Aton is an upgrade over what the Lakers had last season at center. With Alex Len and Jackson Hayes, you are actually getting a bonafide starting center in the NBA in DeAndre Aton. So that’s an absolute positive. It’s just a matter of whether or not the Lakers can bring the best out of him. And hopefully Rob Planka, JJ Reic, and the Laker staff can do just that. Rate DeAndre Aton as a player for me down in the comment section. Scale it from 1 to 100. If you think he’s the best player in the world, 100. If you think he shouldn’t even be in the NBA and should be playing over in China, type one. And while you’re doing that, go on down there and get some Lakers gear right now. chatsports.com/lastrong is where you can get this dope Los Angeles Lakers t-shirt in black right there. LA Strong across the front. When you use that link, chatports.com/lazrong, fanatics will send us a part of the proceeds. So, you can help out the channel while getting yourself some cool Lakers gear for the following season. It’s shadports.com/lrong. Go on down there, get your item from Fanatics today and tell them that we sent you. Couple of other thoughts surrounding the Lakers here and in free agency. Obviously, these are pretty much all of the moves they have made. LeBron James opted in. We’ve talked about that at Nauseium. Jordan Goodwin is back with the Lakers on a veteran minimum. Jake Laravia is there on a two-year $12 million deal. And then DeAndre Aton sounds like he’s going to be signing for at least part of the mid level. I’m not sure if Laravia is going to be part of that as well. Maybe Aon and Laravia are going to make up that mid-level exception. Lavia signed for about 6 million per, for about 8 million per. So that adds up that maybe those two guys are your mid-level exceptions. And did you obviously lose Dorian Finny Smith to the Rockets on a four-year $62 million deal in free agency? It sounds like Dorian did not want to be back and it sounds like there was some friction between Dorian and the Lakers front office. So, he made the decision to opt out and go sign elsewhere. And uh just another note as well, Adutiero is recovering from uh some knee problems, so he will not be playing in the summer league. The Lakers 2025 NBA draft pick, uh the 36 overall pick, he won’t be playing in the summer league. So, you’ll just have to be stuck with Bronny James playing against Cooper Flag. But more on DeAndre Aton. I really think the Lakers had to make this move. The center position was their biggest uh hole on this roster. We said it coming into the offseason that the one thing they had to fix was the center position. Is DeAndre Aton the best person to do that? I wouldn’t say necessarily he is. Is DeAndre Aton upgrade over what they had? Absolutely. There’s no question about it. If he gives you these numbers as the Lakers center next season, I think you feel pretty good. Again, it’s a matter of whether DeAndre Aiden is motivated or not to take that next step in his career to really be among the elite centers in the NBA because I believe with his ability, he is absolutely able to do that. Like what if DeAndre Aton averaged 18 and 12 and gave you maybe a block and a half a night and was able to make winning plays on the basketball court that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet? I think Aton could absolutely be capable of that. He’s someone that is big. He’s athletic. He has all of the tools to make a great center here in the NBA. But right now, it’s do or die for DeAndre Aton. DeAndre Aton here. And we do have the updated details here for DeAndre Aton’s contract. A 2-year 16.6 million contract. So, he’ll be making 8.4 per or 8.3, excuse me, per season. And yeah, I assume that’s going into the mid-level exception. So, eight going to be a multi-year deal. Uh, so this is interesting. I would have expected this to be a one-year contract, but with it being two, the Lakers, they try or we tal Rob Pelinka and Dave McMedan and everyone has talked about this over the last couple of days. The Lakers are prioritizing two-year contracts that have flexibility in the summer of 2027. So, this DeAndre Eaton deal kind of lines up with what they want to do. They also signed Jake Laravia to that 2-year deal as well. So, he Aiden sort of fits in to this timeline of what the Lakers are looking for. And Luca Donic technically has his contract ending in 2027 if he opts in as well. So, this is this is an interesting deal to be honest with you. I’m surprised that it’s a two-year deal for DeAndre Aton. But look, the Lakers needed to upgrade their center position. Like I said, there’s no two ways about it. And they do that in the form of DeAndre Aton. Is he the perfect guy that the Lakers would have liked to sign? Probably not. But is he someone that can elevate the Lakers into the upper echelon of the Western Conference? I do think he can elevate them. Like, could he could DeAndre Aton be the difference between winning and losing a playoff series? Would he have been the difference between winning and losing against the Minnesota Timberwolves? Not necessarily sure. Could he have extended that series? Maybe. like I do think the Lakers were that uh they were that void of center options there in that Minnesota series that they just weren’t able to win it. So when you have Aton now you got to try to go find a backup as well for to play some minutes there and then you have that position figured out and hopefully the Lakers can make a run at the 2026 NBA title. So DeAndre Aiden a Los Angeles Laker two years $16.6 million. That will do it for today’s show guys. This is why you subscribe. Cuz when the Lakers make a move, we have you covered. And when details come in, we get them on the fly like my boy Colin Brown did right there. YouTube.com/lakers TV. Hit that sub button for all your latest Lakers news. [Music]

Breaking NBA news during 2025 NBA free agency surrounds Deandre Ayton signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. Lakers news during NBA free agency has been quiet, but this offseason, but now the Deandre Ayton news is what Lakers rumors have been waiting on. The Lakers Report, hosted by Jeffrey Cooperstein brings you the latest NBA news during 2025 NBA free agency. THis Lakers YouTube video will cover the latest Lakers roster and Lakers lineup for the 2025/2026 NBA season.

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Deandre Ayton career stats:
GP: 398
PPG: 16.4
TPG: 10.5
FG%: 59.0

Lakers free agency moves:
– Jake LaRavia

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HUGE NBA free agency moves
– Bucks waive Damian Lillard
– Bucks sign Myles Turner
– Thunder PAY Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
– Nuggets sign Jonas Valanciunas

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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9S0Cl-qd-o

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