Center Deandre Ayton had a 2024-25 season with the Portland Trail Blazers to forget. It just might have been the worst season of his pro career so far, as he tied a career-low in points per game (14.4) playing for a non-playoff team, all the while being limited to 40 games.
With Ayton having so much room for improvement after how he fared last season, here are five reasons as to why he could capture the Most Improved Player award in the coming 2025-26 season, his maiden season as a Laker.
1. High statistical floor
Ayton is not far removed from a down year, but he’s spent much of his time in the NBA putting up gaudy numbers.
He’s been nothing short of a double-double machine in his pro career, as he holds career averages of 16.4 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
Additionally, Ayton averaged double digits in points and rebounds in every one of his first seven seasons in the league. He’s the first player to accomplish that feat since former Orlando Magic star big man Dwight Howard.
Howard was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame not all that long ago.
Ayton is in another exclusive club with his rebounding and scoring chops as well. Only four players have averaged 10-plus points and 10-plus rebounds per game over the last seven seasons, and Ayton is on that list along with Nikola Vucevic, Rudy Gobert and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
All in all, there is more than enough evidence that Ayton has quite a high floor, and folks shouldn’t expect anything less than double-doubles from him on a nightly basis.
2. Clear path to large role with Lakers
If the Lakers already had a solidified starting center in the fold, then maybe Ayton wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities for playing time needed to contend for the Most Improved Player hardware. However, fortunately for him, the center position just so happened to be a huge hole on the team prior to his arrival, and he doesn’t have an incredible amount of competition for minutes at the spot.
All signs seem to point to Ayton being the Lakers’ starting center when they kick off their regular season later this month, as the only other proven center on the roster is Jaxson Hayes.
Hayes is a limited offensive player in the sense that he can’t reliably score the ball away from the rim, and he has nowhere near the skill set Ayton does. The 25-year-old also had a minimal impact for the Lakers in their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, despite the fact he logged four starts.
3. Proven to be an impact player on winning teams
The current iteration of the Lakers is far from the first team Ayton will play for with playoff expectations. In fact, he helped the Phoenix Suns qualify for the playoffs thrice and was a top player on all of those teams.
He even played a huge part in the Suns making their first Finals appearance in many years in 2021. Ayton started every one of their 22 games in the 2021 NBA Playoffs and shot an unbelievable 65.8 percent from the field for the Suns in a playoff run that came up two wins short of the ultimate prize.
His experience playing in important games and with talented teams — multiple 50-plus win teams, including one 64-win squad — has him prepared to step in and help the Lakers build upon their top-three finish in the West last season. Plus, a lot of wins for Los Angeles in the regular season will only help Ayton’s case for the Most Improved Player award.
4. Playing alongside two generational passers
It’s important to note that Ayton spent plenty of his Suns stint as a beneficiary of sharing the court with floor general Chris Paul, one of the elite playmakers ever to step foot on an NBA court. Still, Ayton has a unique opportunity in front of him in the sense that he’s never played alongside two generational passers at once.
Guard Luka Doncic and forward LeBron James are both game-breaking playmakers. They are facilitators who quite literally bend defenses and make the game easier for their teammates with their vision.
Doncic and James will spot an open Ayton faster than the likes of the facilitators he’s played with in recent seasons, and the big man will find himself open — either under the basket or in the mid-range area — more than he ever has in the NBA in the coming season. As a result, a career season from a scoring standpoint could be in the cards.
5. Renewed commitment to the defensive end
Ayton has rightfully dealt with plenty of flak in his NBA career for his impact on the defensive end or lack thereof. There have been plenty of instances where he’s seemingly not played with the effort and intensity on that end that a man in the middle should, but he’s expressed a renewed commitment to thriving on that end of the floor.
After the Lakers’ preseason opener, Ayton even admitted that he wanted to show his commitment to defense through his play in that game, and he did just that. Not only did he end up tied for a team-high in blocked shots against the Suns with two, but he pulled down eight rebounds in less than 20 minutes of action.
“I wanted to show the team I’m more committed on the defensive end than the offensive end, in a way,” Ayton said. “Like I said from the get go, I’m not really here for numbers. I’m just here for whatever the Lakers want me to do and the main objective is really protecting that rim and closing out possessions. I had fun, man, just blocking some shots and being that anchor, seeing how the guys responded to me, the terminology and stuff that I just needed to get out and just be out in our offense and create from our defense. So it was fun. It was fun tonight, honestly.”
A leap forward from Ayton on the defensive end in his first season as a Laker would help stake his claim as a premier big man as well as a leading candidate for the Most Improved Player award.
