{"id":2025584,"date":"2026-07-03T18:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2025584"},"modified":"2026-07-03T18:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:15:07","slug":"lakers-agree-to-trade-deandre-ayton-to-wizards-for-jaden-hardy-picks-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2025584","title":{"rendered":"Lakers agree to trade Deandre Ayton to Wizards for Jaden Hardy, picks: Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Los Angeles Lakers agreed to trade center Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards for guard Jaden Hardy and the Wizards\u2019 second-round picks in 2031 and 2032 on Friday, league sources confirmed to The Athletic<\/em>. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity\u00a0because the deal has not been completed.<\/p>\n

The Lakers continue to clean out a starting lineup from a team that won 53 games a year ago and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

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One of Washington\u2019s top post-draft priorities was to add a capable, durable big<\/a>, and Ayton will slot into Washington\u2019s big-man rotation as the primary backup at center, behind Alex Sarr. Ayton can also fill in as a starter when necessary. If Anthony Davis misses time because of injuries, which seems likely given that he\u2019s played 70-plus games in only three of his 14 NBA seasons, Sarr can shift to power forward and Ayton can start at center.<\/p>\n

The Lakers will put the Wizards\u2019 incoming second-round picks into what had become a desperately bare asset chest that was down to just one tradeable second-round pick and one first-round pick swap after the Lakers acquired Walker Kessler this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?<\/div>\n
Dan Woike and Jeshua Kidd<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
{“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/”,”name”:”Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?”,”description”:”The Lakers have made a cluster of moves in free agency. Have they improved around Luka Doncic?”,”uploadDate”:”2026-07-02T21:25:46.848Z”,”duration”:”PT49S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/3h9k8dMpufNR.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/3h9k8dMpufNR\/3h9k8dMpufNR.m3u8″,”transcript”:”The team I cover has changed and changed dramatically. This is a team that has now lost LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Luke Kinnard, and it’s a group that has now gained the A-list center that Luka Dacic has wanted, a point of attack defender in Quentin Grimes. It’s gained Sandro Mamakelashvili, a player it really, really likes. We Find out whether or not that plan is good. They have left themselves with very little flexibility, if any at all, but they’ve gone all in, and they’ve gone all in on a vision that they can make Luk Acic a championship level player by optimizing him. Whether they’ve done a good enough job at covering up his weaknesses, I, I think remains to be seen. But, but they have to be the best version of a Lukadic team. They’re not going to be the Spurs. They’re not going to be the Knicks. They have to be the Lukadic Lakers. They took a big step forward in that direction.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/”,”sameAs”:”https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Dan Woike and Jeshua Kidd”}]}<\/p>\n
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