Timelord 2 GS

[Pattycakes]

Ayton is not nearly what you guys insist on making him out to be. He’s expensive but that’s it. Hell shake back out to his 15-16/11 boards norm soon enough, comparing him to dnps is just haterade. Someone will pay for him, just say you’re not interested and move on without lookin like a fool

[babyjax13]

Ayton is not nearly what you guys insist on making him out to be. He’s expensive but that’s it. Hell shake back out to his 15-16/11 boards norm soon enough, comparing him to dnps is just haterade. Someone will pay for him, just say you’re not interested and move on without lookin like a fool

No, I think it is fair to compare him to guys like Drummond and Whiteside who put up counting stats without actually helping their teams win as starters. Ayton's efficiency relative to average starting centers is really bad, he's very close to league average in field goals added, and this year has been below league average ... not just average for centers ... in TS added. e.g., in 23-24 Isaiah Stewart shot 49/38/75 on a low-volume of three point attempts, so you'd expect his efficiency to be below-average for a center (it was bad), but it was about the same as Ayton who shot 57% from the field and 80 percent from the line.

TS added, FG added
Ayton: 10.9 | 36.3
Stewart 18.4 | 15

Here are some comparisons - Mason Plumlee, who was a backup and played 46 games last season, and Ivica Zubac (as someone who is very efficient, but not the most efficient).

TS added, FG added
Plumlee: 16 | 6.8
Zubac: 107.2 | 106.7

Ayton was 85th in FG added, 23rd among centers starting at least 20 games, and 148th in TS added, 27th in that same group. Obviously some of this stuff is contextual, not every center plays the same role, but for a center who should be rim-running, getting offensive rebounds, and doing more than half of their damage in the paint ... that's really, really bad. Defensively he's alright but not a stalwart, so you don't have someone who is performing as a top-20 center (93rd in BPM, 23rd among centers starting at least 20 games). Right now he is the 8th highest paid center in the league, but he impacts the game like ... the 25th best starting center (NOT the 25th best center ... include guys like John Collins, Daniel Gafford, Naz Reid, etc. and he starts to slide even more). This means he is ideally a backup based on production, and Portland just happens to have two centers who are at least as impactful, if not more, than Ayton is.

Really, Ayton's playstyle completely neuters him as a player, he has the skillset to be much higher on that list, but he is not going to realize that potential.