If the Los Angeles Lakers want to hold onto the #6 seed in the West, they need to realize they cannot trust Deandre Ayton and the time has come to bench him and welcome a Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber center rotation.
Frankly, the skillsets of Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber are both better fits for what the Lakers need from the center position than Deandre Ayton, who’s become frustrated and disenchanted with his role on the Lakers.
Deandre Ayton’s skillset was never a great fit for the Lakers, who need an elite two-way center who can protect the rim and guard in space on defense and be a 3-point floor spacer and athletic vertical lob threat on offense.
A diverse and talented center rotation of Hayes and Kleber gives the Lakers everything they need to compete for a championship: rim protection and switchability on defense and vertical lob threat and spacing on offense.
Next summer, the Lakers will likely pursue a modern starting center who can do everything at both ends of the court but for the rest of this season and the playoffs, the time has come for a Hayes and Kleber center rotation.
Between Kleber’s back and Ayton’s knee, the Lakers could be down to justS Hayes starting and James as his backup tonight against the Pacers at home. I’d love the Lakers to play Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber at center tonight.
To be honest, Jaxson has been outplaying Ayton by a wide margin, posting a team best +112 plus/minus since the start of the new year vs. Ayton’s team worst -62 plus/minus. Last night’s game was likely Ayton’s last as a starter.
So let’s take a deeper dive into what Jaxson Hayes starting at center and Maxi Kleber backing him up could mean for the Lakers’ starting lineup and 9 or 10-man rotation their chances of holding onto the #6 seed in the west.
JAXSON HAYES AS STARTING CENTER
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The 5-player Lakers’ lineup of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart, LeBron James, and Jaxson Hayes has only played 21 minutes in 5 games but has an excellent 122.9 offensive, elite 102.2 defensive, and +20.7 net rating.
With just 20 games remaining, the Lakers cannot afford to continue to trust Deandre Ayton. If they want to hold onto th3 #6 seed in the West, they need to put their 5 best players on the court, which means Hayes over Ayton. The Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart, LeBron James, and Jaxson Hayes starting lineup would be the first time this season that the Lakers started the 5 players on their roster with the highest personal plus/minus.
Ayton averaged 27 mpg while Hayes averaged only 17 for a total of 45 mpg. Since neither Hayes nor Kleber has recently averaged 20 minutes per game, the duo will likely each play around 20 mpg with small ball getting 8 mpg.
In his 27 mpg, Ayton has averaged 12.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.9 blocks, and 0.6 steals. In their 28.5 combined mpg, Hayes and Kleber have averaged 9.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 blocks, and 0.8 steals.
Despite the redundancy and inefficiency of playing Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves together, Coach Redick and the Lakers need the to find the right two starters to unlock the juggernaut in their Big Three. Marcus Smart has been everything the Lakers could have hoped for and is replicating his Celtics’ DPOY performance while Jaxson Hayes has become the perfect athletic vertical lob threat Luka Doncic desperately needs.
Replacing Ayton with Hayes should make the Lakers’ starting lineup better and more consistent on offense and defense and provide two gritty players who thrive on doing the tough physical dirty work makes teams winners.
MAXI KLEBER AS BACKUP CENTER
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Over the last 15 games, Maxi Kleber has produced the 6th best plus/minus on the team and the highest plus/minus among bench players. While he’s missed the last 2 games, Maxi is probably the healthiest he’s been in years.
The Laker’ primary backups include Luke Kennard at shooting guard, Jake LaRavia at small forward, Rui Hachimura at power forward, and Maxi Kleber at center. Right now, Luka or Austin would be backup point guard.
Redick is likely to go with a 9-man rotation at this point and cover the backup point guard minutes with one of Luka, LeBron, or Austin. That means Deandre Ayton and Jarred Vanderbilt would be out of the rotation.
Maxi Kleber has been a impressive surprise who has made several game winning plays at center, including blocks, steals, dunks off pick-and-rolls. His history and rapport having played with Luka has been a huge plus.
Maxi Kleber is actually a better fit for what the Lakers need than Deandre Ayton. Maxi brings positional size and physicality, vet smarts and savvy, ability to stretch the court, and experience playing with Luka Doncic.
While Maxi’s only shooting 27.3% from deep right now, he’s a career 35.3% 3-point shooter and will be expected to give the Lakers the ability to play the 5-out sets to create maximum spacing for Luka, LeBron, and Austin.
The Lakers have been looking for points off the bench all season long. They may finally see some positive results as their bench now includes a pair of top-10 3-point percentage shooters like Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura.
If he can stay healthy, Maxi Kleber could be the modern shot blocking backup stretch center the Lakers desperately need to hang onto the #6 seed in the West with just 20 games remaining in the 2025–26 regular season.
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