Just days after acquiring center Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade deal with the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers traded Deandre Ayton, their starting 5 last season, to the Washington Wizards for two second-round draft picks and guard Jaden Hardy.
While some understood the reasoning behind the trade, others felt it was ill-advised. To them, Ayton would've made an outstanding backup center behind Kessler, although Ayton has never averaged fewer than 27 minutes a game in eight NBA seasons and would've likely gotten no more than about 15 minutes a game on this new-look Lakers squad.
Jovan Buha, who covers the team on his "Buha's Block" podcast, revealed during a recent episode an interesting reason why L.A. jettisoned Ayton, and according to him, it wasn't just to recoup a bit of the draft capital it gave up to get Kessler.
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