PHOENIX — Despite it only being three games entering Thursday’s road game against the Suns, the LA Lakers’ post-All-Star break play illustrated a sentiment that’s been evident all season: The team’s ceiling is only as high as Deandre Ayton’s buy-in to what the Lakers need from him.

And Ayton is the biggest X-factor for whatever success the Lakers will achieve this season — which the last week has illustrated. 

Take last Friday’s win over the Clippers, for instance — a game in which Ayton finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go with seven rebounds in 28 minutes. The final stat line doesn’t stand out, but his energy did. 

Ayton had one of the game’s biggest highlights when he threw down an alley-oop from LeBron James in transition to give the Lakers a 14-point lead, providing one of the biggest jolts of energy to the crowd inside Crypto.com Arena after he sprinted up the floor to make the play happen.

Even though it ultimately came in a narrow loss, Ayton’s play in Tuesday’s home game against the Magic demonstrated what the Lakers need from him, at least offensively. 

Ayton was using his 7-foot, 252-pound frame to punish Orlando’s switching defense. His activity near the rim led to 21 points and 13 rebounds — his first 20-point game and double-double in nearly a month. 

The Lakers getting him involved — especially during the second quarter when he had 13 points and four rebounds — paid off. 

“Most definitely, the ball finds energy,” Ayton said. “They believe in me when I’m down there, sealing, and they see me running hard to the rim and crashing. They reward me, just add more and just keep stacking as many possessions as I can with that, just to have a certain rhythm throughout the game.”

But then there are also games like Sunday’s loss to the Celtics, when the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft shows why his previous two teams, the Suns and Trail Blazers, moved on from him. And why he was available for the Lakers to sign in free agency over the summer in the first place despite how talented he is. 

Ayton had just as many fouls (four) as points against the Celtics, shooting 2 of 6 from the field in 25 minutes.

Beyond Ayton’s scoring, or the Lakers’ ability to get him the ball in advantageous positions, his energy wasn’t present in the ways the Lakers needed it to be. 

“There’s positive trends,” coach JJ Redick said. “There [were] some real positive trends defensively. His spirit and engagement and stuff has been really good. I think for all the guys, if he has a smaller player on him, that’s an advantage for us. Let’s just get him the ball. I think it’s just thematically across the team, we have to pass it to each other more and trust each other more.”

Redick also pointed to a sequence in which Ayton didn’t sprint down the floor, with the Lakers having a potential 5-on-4 advantage against the Celtics after Jaylen Brown fell to the floor, as an example of what the Lakers need Ayton to do consistently. 

“We’ve got a 5-on-4 and he goes at about 20% speed where it’s clearly a man-down situation,” Redick said. “So in terms of him running and putting pressure on the rim and offensive rebounding, particularly against switches and smaller players, he could be better there.”

The focus on Ayton, who signed a two-year, $16.2 million contract with the Lakers ($8.1 million player option for 2026-27) after his buyout with the Trail Blazers, is because of how he transforms the Lakers when he’s involved, bought in and locked in.

The Lakers entered Thursday with a 23-9 record in games Ayton’s had at least seven rebounds. They were also 16-3 in games Ayton’s had at least 10 field-goal attempts.

The challenge for Ayton, and the Lakers, is that most of the games he’s been most involved offensively have also been when the team has been without at least one of Luka Doncic, James or Austin Reaves. 

Of the 19 games Ayton’s had at least 19 field-goal attempts, only four have been when the Lakers’ Big 3 were all available and played. 

And with fewer touches to go around, the Lakers need Ayton to maintain his level even if he isn’t as involved offensively — a dilemma a lot of big men who are reliant on their playmakers offensively often face.

The Lakers need the little things from Ayton, like screening, sprinting up and down the floor or being a commanding interior presence. Ayton has been consistent with that, evident by his 3.7 screen assists per game, which tied for sixth in the league entering Thursday. But a drop-off can’t happen if he isn’t getting the ball.

“He’s done OK,” said Marcus Smart, who sits next to Ayton in the Lakers’ locker room. “He definitely could be better; we all could. But the thing I love about it is he understands it and he’s working. We all are trying to figure it out; this is new to everybody. He’s doing his best, but he understands it’s another notch that we need him to go to, and we’re going to try to get him there and help with that. But he knows he’s got to do his part as well.”