The Los Angeles Lakers continue to overhaul their roster this offseason, this time sending centre Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards. In return, LA will receive Jaden Hardy, and a pair of second round picks in 2031 and 2032.
With Ayton out of the picture, the Lakers will be in the market for a back up centre to complement Walker Kessler whom the team acquired from Utah for two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, alongside first-round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030. According to reports, the team has shown an interest in Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas, and Kevon Looney amongst others for that role.
News of the deal comes only a few days after Ayton opted into his $8.1M player option for the 2026-27 season.
The 27 year old averaged 12.5 points, and 8 rebounds per game for Los Angeles in 2025-26. Despite starting 72 games for the Lakers last season, Ayton posted the lowest average minutes total of his career at just 27.2 per night. He subsequently had the fewest field goal attempts, rebounds, assists, steals, and points totals of his 8 year NBA career.
Los Angeles will be happy to recoup some additional assets, bringing their total to 3 second rounders along with a future pick swap which they can further use to build their roster. While it’s far from a treasure trove of picks, anything to replenish their largely barren stockpile of future picks without disrupting their starting rotation has to be considered a win at this point for LA.
They’ll also add 6’3″ guard Jaden Hardy who averaged 9.2 points per game last season between the Mavericks and Wizards. The 23 year old saw increased usage in Washington as he played just over 20 minutes per night, and saw his scoring improve to 12.6 points per game.
He’s set to earn $6M this season, and will feature a subsequent $6M team option in 2027-28 before hitting free agency as a 26 year old.
For Washington, they now find themselves with a fairly competent front court in Ayton, Anthony Davis and Alex Sarr. That however hinges on Davis being in a Wizards uniform when the 2026-27 NBA season actually tips off. While the Wizards have downplayed rumours of a potential Davis deal, the former number 1 overall pick has seen his name floated about NBA trade rumours for the better part of the last month.
Most notably, the Golden State Warriors have been linked to the star big man, though there would have to be some creative financial maneuvering in order for that to come to fruition.
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