Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton had a bizarre explanation for his poor debut with his new team.
Ayton failed to seriously impact the game in Tuesday’s 119-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Ca. He contributed 10 points and 6 rebounds in 34 minutes, but was guilty of 4 turnovers and did not appear to be on the same page as Austin Reaves when Reaves was running the offense.
After the game, Ayton tried to explain away his struggles by calling himself a “confusing” big man to play with and suggesting that his teammates might have been expecting him to play in a different style than he actually did.
“Today I was realizing I’m probably a confusing big, when I can roll and stand just in the pocket. It’s probably a little difficult for them sometimes,” Ayton told reporters after the game. “I’m so used to the league having that low man on me, sometimes I can’t even finish a roll and, a tiny bit, linger around the free throw area just to be available for him. There’s times I can finish my roll. You got to play some more and play against some more great teams like how we did tonight to really see what’s the common coverage for these teams, really trying to put us on their personnel what they got on us.”
Deandre Ayton admitted he might be a “confusing”pick-and-roll target after Austin Reaves blamed some of his five turnovers for making the “wrong pass at the right time” in the two-man game with the new Lakers center pic.twitter.com/PFCgdd2kDG
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 22, 2025
There were a number of occasions where Ayton settled for mid-range shots instead of driving to the rim. Perhaps that was the plan, and Ayton did go 5/7 from the field, but the connection with his teammates seemed to be missing.
In other words, Ayton seems to be arguing that he is not as good a pick and roll target as he might seem to be, because he winds up lingering around the free throw line a lot in order to be more available for his teammates to pass to. In a certain sense, Ayton’s explanation only makes things more confusing. After all, one of the reasons for preseason is to get comfortable with the tendencies and preferences of new teammates.
Perhaps things will get better for Ayton as time goes on, but some Lakers fans have already seen enough of him. His explanation probably will not make them feel much better about him turning things around.
