Deandre Ayton

And if you look at the money that they eventually gave out to Walker Kessler and Mamu and Quentin Grimes factoring in Jackson Hayes' salary cap hold would have been tricky.

They would have had to shed more salary in addition to eventually trading DeAndre Ayton.

So it was a little surprise that they didn't end up retaining Jackson based on him recently becoming a Slovenian citizen and just his connection with Luka.

They share an agent, they're friends.

Regardless, Rui Hachimura no longer a Laker.

DeAndre Ayton, no longer a Laker because he was traded to the Washington Wizards.

He is still on his $8.1 million contract that he signed with the Lakers.

He opted into his player option.

And the players who carried over from last season's team beyond Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are players who could honestly be cut from any team.

And so that's a little bit disappointing to think about.

But with regards to Rui, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, Jackson Hayes, DeAndre Ayton, was there anyone like that you were hoping to maybe keep just for a little bit more continuity or anyone that you were surprised that the Lakers sort of just moved off of?

So there's only two guys.

And they have a backup plan, Greg.

God forbid if Davis goes down knocking on wood, you can slide in DeAndre Ayton there.

And you have Ayton and Saar.

I mean, how many times have we talked about this team getting destroyed in the Pena area, Greg, or just rebounding-wise? It would never click for him.

I think apart from him, everybody is competing for real rotational minutes.

And the only reason that Tristan is not is because they have AD and Sar starting.

They have DeAndre Ayton backing them up.

And I'm not necessarily sure that Tristan is going to be competing for a forward spot versus just being a depth center.

But it was very clear they needed a center this summer, KC.

Like, that was, they needed to upgrade from DeAndre Ayton.

He was not good enough, eventually traded him for a couple seconds and Jaden Hardy, but they needed that rim protection.

And then around that, yeah, you have Quentin Grimes, whose defensive numbers are actually very solid, like his isolation defense and, you know, a defender as the, uh, against pick and roll ball handlers is pretty high level, especially ag- um, in Philly.

And, uh, what he also is, is an elite offensive rebounder.

That's a part of the game the Lakers were really missing last year.

DeAndre Ayton is just not a force on the boards in that way.

I thought, again, I thought Ayton had a better season than people kinda give him credit for, but those numbers really dropped in the playoffs when Luka didn't play, and it was really just Austin and LeBron running screen actions.

I mean, look, you just named off some names, but like, okay, so Victor's the last center to go number one.

Then you go down to... 2018, DeAndre Ayton goes number one.

Then you go down to

2015.

I feel like we've seen a few of these every offseason, but maybe not with players as high profile as Durant.

Maybe the closest comparison would be the DeAndre Ayton playoff.

situation with Phoenix a few years back.

Pistons still fully expect Dern will be back.

I feel like we've seen a few of these every offseason, but maybe not with players as high profile as Duren.

Maybe the closest comparison would be the DeAndre Ayton situation with Phoenix a few years back.

Pistons still fully expect Duren will be back.

The situation hasn't.

Miles Bridges is a giant improvement.

But remember, we only had DeAndre Ayton being coached on the floor by Chris Paul.

And that was a huge thing.

And I will never stop talking about how important Chris Paul was to that finals run.