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Deandre Ayton's free agent market has apparently been paralyzed by trade talks involving the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets. Now, it appears we could soon see movement with Ayton.

Reports out of Phoenix are that Ayton could sign an offer sheet, possibly as soon as Thursday. That would force the Suns hands on matching his deal or letting him leave.

Ayton has been rumored to be a part of trade for Kevin Durant via a sign-and-trade to the Nets. However, Brooklyn doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in acquiring Ayton in a Durant trade, which would mean involving a third team in any potential deal.

The only two teams with the cap space to sign Ayton to an offer sheet are the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Indiana has been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Ayton. This goes as far back as the 2022 trade deadline, when the Pacers considered dealing for young center.

Via John Gambadoro/98.7 FM Phoenix

Just sign a deal with the Spurs already. Costs them nothing. If they don't get matched, they have a great asset they can trade for picks in half a year. If they do get matched, Ayton gets the higher salary, and can't be included in a KD trade right away.

Hoping my Pacers steer clear of Ayton. I just doubt that he will live up to the contract he is seeking. I look at what the highest paid centers do like Jokic, Embiid, Gobert and Ayton is so far down the rung from those guys. He doesn't really create his own shot, he isn't a high level defender, he isn't a dominant rebounder, an offense isn't going to run through him, he doesn't really stretch the floor...it seems rather likely that Ayton will struggle to live up to 30mil+ letalone the higher figure that would result from a sign and trade.

The Pacers haven't been mentioned. Hornets could trade Hayward to LA and a future first, send rozier to Indiana, Indiana sends Buddy Heild to the lakers and a second round pick to charolette, Lakers send Westbrook to charolette, pacers send Phoenix Myles Turner and future second round picks. Might be missing a pick swap or something. But this works for everybody.

Salty1 wrote:The Pacers haven't been mentioned. Hornets could trade Hayward to LA and a future first, send rozier to Indiana, Indiana sends Buddy Heild to the lakers and a second round pick to charolette, Lakers send Westbrook to charolette, pacers send Phoenix Myles Turner and future second round picks. Might be missing a pick swap or something. But this works for everybody.

Man you wrote that out in a really confusing way but I would be absolutely stunned if the Hornets would trade Hayward, Rozier and a First Round Pick for Russell Westbrook. Is that what you meant to say?

And does DeAndre Ayton have anything to do with this?

Scalabrine wrote:

Salty1 wrote:The Pacers haven't been mentioned. Hornets could trade Hayward to LA and a future first, send rozier to Indiana, Indiana sends Buddy Heild to the lakers and a second round pick to charolette, Lakers send Westbrook to charolette, pacers send Phoenix Myles Turner and future second round picks. Might be missing a pick swap or something. But this works for everybody.

Man you wrote that out in a really confusing way but I would be absolutely stunned if the Hornets would trade Hayward, Rozier and a First Round Pick for Russell Westbrook. Is that what you meant to say?

And does DeAndre Ayton have anything to do with this?

Agreed. Really confusing. But LAL are motivated to move Westbrook & CHA would likely be willing to take his expiring if they can move Hayward's remaining years along with the contract for OG Jalen Brunson
Not sure why IND will want Ayton since they've been trying to trade Myles Turner for basically his whole career

I am not a fan of Ayton or the Spurs, but if there is anyone who can get the most out of this kid, it's Popovich. Spurs seems like the best situation for Deandre to flourish.

If he signs an offer sheet for max with Pacers it will be a disaster for the Sun's off-season... No KD, no compensation in a trade....all they can do is pay Ayton max money to come back and be unhappy

saloonyk8 wrote:If he signs an offer sheet for max with Pacers it will be a disaster for the Sun's off-season... No KD, no compensation in a trade....all they can do is pay Ayton max money to come back and be unhappy

I agree with you that it will be a disaster, but there is no reason Ayton needs to be angry if the Suns match. The entire purpose of RFA is to allow a player to get paid the most they possibly can without the team giving up their rights to that player. The Suns clearly feel, and rightly so, that Ayton is worth somewhat less than the max. That doesn't mean that they don't value him or that they don't want him around. Ayton is an important player for the Suns and important players sign for less than the max every day.

there's a reason no one's rushing to grab ayton and i'll give the main one

gm's believe in monty/cp3/phx more than they do ayton

and there's a reason why ayton wants to be on a contender. he would be exposed on any lesser team that gives him more load

The Pacers signing Ayton for the max doesn't make much sense to me, as they just dealt Sabonis and are trying to deal Myles Turner. Do they think that Ayton is better than those two? Because no one else seems to. Max money should go to a player who moves the needle toward contention. Not a nice to have. IMO

TheCage4 wrote:I am not a fan of Ayton or the Spurs, but if there is anyone who can get the most out of this kid, it's Popovich. Spurs seems like the best situation for Deandre to flourish.

Now that Murray just got traded, that door may have closed. It would've been a nice fit though.

trezer12 wrote:The Pacers signing Ayton for the max doesn't make much sense to me, as they just dealt Sabonis and are trying to deal Myles Turner. Do they think that Ayton is better than those two? Because no one else seems to. Max money should go to a player who moves the needle toward contention. Not a nice to have. IMO

There has been a TON of talk here locally about the Pacers either signing Ayton outright or getting involved in the KD trade as the team that would take on Ayton to expedite KDs way to the Suns. I'm hoping it's just all talk and no substance as I want nothing to do with Ayton at 35mil+. I don't see much of a road for Ayton to live up to a contract like that. Doesn't dominate the boards, doesn't play great D, doesn't stretch the floor, doesn't really create much for himself or others nor appears to have much ability to do so, and he isn't a dominant low post scorer. Short of being the addition or catalyst that propels a team to the Finals, it's hard to imagine him being a 35mil+ player.

Indiana doesn't need to offer Ayton the max. They only need to offer him $1 more than Phoenix or San Antonio is offering. Ayton may just have to accept that there is no one who will pay him the max. Nothing wrong with running a pressure test on the teams to see if somebody wil, but one nobody steps up, you just have to drop your asking price. Nothing unusual about that at all.

BigTex wrote:Indiana doesn't need to offer Ayton the max. They only need to offer him $1 more than Phoenix or San Antonio is offering. Ayton may just have to accept that there is no one who will pay him the max. Nothing wrong with running a pressure test on the teams to see if somebody wil, but one nobody steps up, you just have to drop your asking price. Nothing unusual about that at all.

Yeah, except that's not really how it works. If they offer him "$1 more than Phoenix is offering" than Phoenix would just match because that's not a large amount. If Phoenix is currently offering $20 million a season for example, the offer better be at least 25+ million to have a chance at Phoenix not matching... and honestly I think it would have to be in the $30's for Phoenix to actually let him walk. So yeah, basically a max.