Instant Trade Grade: Wizards Buy Low on Deandre Ayton

For days, Washington Wizards fans have been clamoring for the team to make a signing. They'd yet to do much of anything nearly two days after the NBA's free agency window opened, and that was with a glaring hole at center depth.

It wasn't until today, with D.C. locals starting to get antsy, that the Wizards finally made a move -- just not the one anyone expected. Instead of inking a hired gun, they traded for Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton to shore up the frontcourt, and they gave up very little in the exchange.

Just in: The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards for Jaden Hardy and two Wizards second-round picks in 2031 and 2032, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/bAEtSFpTNi
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 3, 2026

All he cost was Jaden Hardy -- shrapnel from Washington's Anthony Davis trade -- and a few down-the-road second round picks, just a year after Ayton cranked out 72 starts with the No. 4-seeded Lakers.

Ayton, the biggest name changing jerseys in the swap, is developing into quite the journeyman following a one-and-done Lakers stint. And not for a lack of counting stats; the No. 1 pick out of the 2018 NBA Draft averaged a career-high 67.1% from the field this past season, but his 2025-26 marks of 12.5 nightly points and eight boards registered as all-time lows for the seven-footer. He was further from his squad's center of attention than ever before as the Lakers' rim-roller, and his lack of consistent rim pressure ended up surfacing over 10 playoff games during this most recent postseason.

The contenders were clearly done with him following their trade for Walker Kessler as Luka Doncic's new pick-and-roll running mate, making this a worthy buy-low move for Washington. They, too, can benefit from some sturdiness in the paint, and he profiles as a strong rebounder to grant heavy minutes to when one of Davis or Alex Sarr are unavailable to make their usual starts.

He'll make for an intriguing balancer alongside, or in place of, defensive stalwarts in Davis and Sarr, though Ayton doesn't usually deploy his rippling muscles for shot-blocking. He's an offense-first kind of center, and he's a huge step up from third-string alterntives such as Tristan Vukcevic and Felix Okpara.

Washington Wizards Centers Anthony Davis and Deandre Ayton — Apr 5, 2022; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis (3) against Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton (22) at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports

From an asset standpoint, the Wizards' executives are giving up next to nothing for the chance to deploy a regular double-double threat as a bench hand and a cheap, expiring contract, and they still get to hold on to that final roster vacancy in sending Hardy back to Doncic.

He'll have no issue padding his stats next to Trae Young, an entry passer whose willingness to feed roaming bigs rivals Doncic's, but again, he was on the Lakers' evident trade block for a reason. Ayton's effort and aggression wanders, and his comfortability settling for midrange jumpers and floaters will frustrate Washington fans looking for guaranteed possession-ending dunks, lingering issues of his with a chance to dwindle away from the public's critical eye in a minimized role and within the Wizards' lower-stakes basketball situation.

The Wizards, now two picks and a Hardy short, only do this trade if they're gearing up to get in the Eastern Conference's mix, and they clearly understood where their roster was at its weakest. If the goal was to find a cheap, theoretically-high-end big guy to do big guy things, Ayton was one of the better options they could have walked out of the offseason with.

Grade: B+

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