Very cheap! James ninth No. 1 pick in his career, the Lakers signed!

The NBA's free agent market has been open for several days in 2025. The Los Angeles Lakers have few moves, and some US media are already teasing whether the Lakers do not know that the free agent market has been opened.

Indeed, as the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks continue to adjust their lineups, the Lakers are really still holding on. Not only does they not sign heavily, they also lose the important player on the front line, Finney Smith. In this way, it is not surprising that the Lakers are ridiculed.

And just today, the Lakers finally took action. They confirmed to sign No. 1 pick to pick center Ayton and fill in their inside vacancy. Ayton previously played for the Portland Trail Blazers, but the contract was directly bought out by the Trail Blazers two days ago, giving way to Yang Hansen and becoming a complete free agent.

According to the buyout process, Ayton agreed to get about $10 million less, which means he left the Trail Blazers after getting $24 million. In this way, it is understandable that Ayton accepted the Lakers' two-year $16.6 million contract.

In the NBA, which often earns an annual salary of US$20 million, Ayton's average annual salary is only over US$8 million, which is very cheap. The Lakers let Finney Smith go and have a middle-class contract special case. They used part of it to sign small forward Laravia, fill the wing position, and signed Ayton with the remaining more than $8 million in middle-class special case.

In this way, the Lakers can play the starting lineup of Doncic, Reeves, Hachimura, James and Ayton. It looks OK, but in fact, the defensive end is full of loopholes and basically no defense. After Ayton joined the Lakers, James welcomed his ninth No. 1 pick in his NBA career, including O'Neal, Joe Smith, Howard, Bogut, Oden, Rose, Irving and Davis.