Do you believe it? 5 reasons why Ayton will be named the Most Improved Player in the new season

Translator's Note: This article was originally published by Lakers Daily, written by Jesse Cinquini. The views expressed in the article have nothing to do with the translator or the platform.

Deandre Ayton's performance for the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2024-25 season is unbearable. This is probably the worst season of his career so far - playing for a non-playoff team, he averaged a career low (14.4 points) while playing in only 40 games throughout the season.

With Ayton having so much room for improvement after his performance last season, here are five reasons why he could win the Most Improved Player award in the upcoming 2025-26 season, his first as a Laker.

1. High lower limit of statistics

Although Ayton has just experienced a downturn in the season, he has been able to produce gorgeous statistics for most of his time in the NBA. In his career, he can be called a "double-double machine", averaging 16.4 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in his career.

In addition, Ayton averaged double digits in points and rebounds per game in each of his first seven seasons after entering the league. He is the first player to achieve this feat since former Orlando Magic star big man Dwight Howard. Howard was recently inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

With his excellent rebounding and scoring ability, Ayton has also made another elite list. In the past seven seasons, only four players have averaged 10+ points and 10+ rebounds per game, and Ayton is among them along with Nikola Vucevic, Rudy Gobert and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

All in all, there is ample evidence that Ayton’s data limit is extremely high, and people can fully expect him to deliver at least a double-double every night.

2. Have a clear important role in the Lakers

If the Lakers already have a solid starting center, then Ayton may not get the sufficient playing time opportunities necessary to compete for the Most Improved Player Award. However, fortunately, the center position happened to be a huge shortcoming of the team before he joined, and the competition pressure for playing time he faced in this position was not very fierce.

All signs seem to point to Ayton becoming their starting center when the Lakers open the regular season later this month, as the only qualified center on the roster besides him is Hayes. Hayes' ability on the offensive end has obvious limitations. Specifically, he cannot score stably in areas away from the basket, and his technical comprehensiveness is far less than Ayton. The 25-year-old player had little impact in the Lakers' first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2025 NBA playoffs. Even though he got the opportunity to start four times, he failed to bring much positive impact to the team in the game. In fact, he helped the Phoenix Suns reach the playoffs three times and was one of the core players on that team. He played a huge role in the Suns' run to the Finals in 2021. In the 2021 NBA playoffs, Ayton started all 22 games for the Suns and shot an astonishing 65.8% from the field throughout the playoffs. In the end, he was only two wins away from winning the championship. His experience in many important games and playing in many strong teams - including many teams with a regular season winning rate of more than 50%, and even a top team that won 64 games in a single season - these valuable experiences have made him fully prepared to quickly integrate into the Lakers' tactical system and help the team further improve the overall performance based on the top three rankings in the Western Conference last season.

4. Playing alongside two era-defining passers

It is important to point out that Ayton benefited from playing with court general Chris Paul for a long time during his time with the Suns - Paul is one of the top playmakers in NBA history. Still, Ayton now faces a unique opportunity, as he's never played with two era-defining passers at the same time. Both Doncic and James are playmakers who can change the game. They are the type of playmakers that can really tear apart a defense and make life easier for their teammates with their broad vision. Doncic and James will find Ayton open quicker than any playmaker he's played with in recent seasons. And the big man will find himself in open looks — both at the rim and in the mid-range — more this upcoming season than at any time in his NBA career. Therefore, from a scoring perspective, he is very likely to have a career-high season.

5. Recommit to improving the defensive end

Throughout Ayton's NBA career, due to his unsatisfactory performance on the defensive end, and even failing to show his due defensive influence in many cases, he has received a lot of reasonable criticism and doubts. There have been many instances where he seemed to fail to display the level of effort and defensive intensity expected of a post player on the defensive end, but he has now expressed his determination to recommit to excelling on that end of the court.

After the Lakers' preseason debut, Ayton even admitted that he wanted to show his commitment to defense through his performance in that game, and he did exactly that. Not only did he tie for the team-high with two blocks against the Suns, but he also grabbed eight rebounds in less than 20 minutes of playing time..

Ayton said: "I want to show the team that I am more invested in the defensive end in some ways than the offensive end. Like I said at the beginning, I'm not really here for the data. I'm just here to complete whatever the Lakers ask me to do, and the main goal is really to protect the basket and ultimately Determining the opponent's offensive possessions."

If Ayton can make a leap on the defensive end in his first season in a Lakers jersey, it will help solidify his status as the league's top interior player and make him one of the leading candidates for the Most Improved Player award.