East Contender Seen as 'Dark Horse' Trade Destination for Blazers' Deandre Ayton

Will the Portland Trail Blazers be able to find a taker for their priciest player before the 2024-25 season's February 6 trade deadline?

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Far from ever blossoming into the "DominAyton" superhero he had projected himself to become in Portland, veteran Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton has instead more or less checked out on his new digs, just a year-and-a-half into the proceedings.

Ivica Zubac rejects Scoot Henderson and then rejects Deandre Ayton right after
pic.twitter.com/fA67wAIQ3l
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) January 17, 2025

Ayton has looked utterly disengaged of late on both ends of the hardwood. It's gotten fairly grisly.

not to pile on the guy, but just look at Deandre Ayton on this play. Can't close this one over Clingan: pic.twitter.com/7i0YZER8Gh
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) January 15, 2025

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Maybe it's high time the tanking Trail Blazers checked out on him.

In a new piece, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report reveals that Portland may have a potential trade partner this year.

“The Blazers drafted their future center, Donovan Clingan, but he may not be ready for a full-time starting role," Pincus observes. "Portland may wait until the summer to move a higher-salaried player like Deandre Ayton. [Jerami] Grant’s contract and age limit his market. [Anfernee] Simons is due a new salary soon (expiring 2025-26), so he may be the right player to deal.”

The Trail Blazers stand as an intriguing rebuilding squad to watch at the deadline. They have solid vets like Ayton, Simons, Grant, Robert Williams III, and perhaps Matisse Thybulle (if he can ever play a game this year) on their roster. All but Simons (who was held scoreless on Thursday against the L.A. Clippers) don't seem to match Portland's rebuild timeline.

Though Simons is a few years older than core pieces like Clingan, Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson, he's a high-scoring homegrown Portland talent. The Trail Blazers may want to keep him around, even if he's their most movable big contract.

“But Portland could do nothing this deadline and just wait for the offseason, Pincus adds. "It’s a franchise willing to trade but not desperate to do so.”

Intriguingly, Pincus posits that the Atlanta Hawks, currently the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 21-19 record, may be an intriguing potential trade destination for a splashy move.

Acquiring Ayton or one-time All-Star New Orleans Pelicans small forward Brandon Ingram could be just such a play.

"The Hawks could be a dark-horse candidate to land Brandon Ingram or Deandre Ayton, but competing executives note that whatever long-term move they make, they’ll stay under the luxury tax," Pincus notes.

This year, Ayton is averaging a career-low 13.5 points on 56.5 percent shooting from the floor, 10 rebounds and 1.4 assists a night for the 13-26 Trail Blazers. Those are respectable numbers, and again, the 26-year-old is playing even more apathetically this year than he did at the end of his fraught Phoenix Suns tenure. Imagine what he can do on a team desperate for a Clint Capela upgrade.

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