Another Dawkins bargain: Wizards land DeAndre Ayton for next to nothing

The Wizards shored up their center position for next season by acquiring DeAndre Ayton from the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s yet another trademark Will Dawkins trade — the price for Ayton was a guard they didn’t want and a couple second round picks. Add this move to a list that include paying nothing the team wanted to obtain Trae Young from the Atlanta Hawks, and paying a modest price for Anthony Davis.

The Washington Wizards made a smart move in trading for big man DeAndre Ayton. | Getty Images

This isn’t a franchise-altering move, but it’s a smart one nonetheless. While multiple teams have given up on Ayton, including the Lakers, who just paid a heavy price to acquire Ayton’s replacement, he’s not a bad player, and he will upgrade Washington’s backup center spot next season.

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Last season, Ayton’s individual production was solidly above average (144 PPA — in PPA, 100 is average and higher is better), though the Lakers were only “about the same” on both ends when he was in the game. That goes for regular season and playoffs.

After spending heavily to acquire Walker Kessler, the Lakers needed to offload Ayton’s relatively modest $8.1 million salary to create financial flexibility for other moves, and get back some future draft resources. That they dealt him for a player they don’t want and a couple second round picks is a bit of an indictment of the former No. 1 overall pick — a guy selected ahead of players like Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Still, a guy one team doesn’t want can still have value to another. For Washington, Ayton checks a few boxes. At full health, he’ll be the primary backup center — slotting into a three-big F/C rotation with Alex Sarr and Davis. With Ayton in the fold, Davis won’t have to spend much time as the titular center. Figure the team will start and finish halves with Davis and Sarr up front and play combinations of the three in between.

Ayton also provides some injury insurance in the likely event that Davis or Sarr gets hurt. Both have injury histories. Sarr is currently recovering from a broken…

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Publish date : 2026-07-03 20:51:00

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