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He earned Player of the Week.
https://www.si.com/nba/suns/news/phoenix-suns-deandre-ayton-western-conference-player-week

Played with a lot more passion in the last two weeks or so.
Maybe it was all for good that he stayed.

He's been great. If he can be this player the Suns are very dangerous. You know what you're going to get from Booker and CP, so Ayton is a real X factor for them.

Damn this changes week to week. Couple weeks ago I saw him play twice and he looked meh and uninspired (against my Sixers and national TV vs GSW), and some podcast around that time had a segment that was basically 'so is Ayton toast?' Couple good games against good matchups and we all get to dream again.

His role was reduced to a lob finisher on offense with CP3. Setting screens and playing defense was always of higher priority. Now with CP3 out Suns need more out of him on offensive end to stay relevant. He can score. He's a good passer as well.

He's forever going to be an on/off player. Players like him don't take 5 years to find their motivation. He will probably play really well in his contract year though, I can guarantee that.

If Ayton becomes similar to 2011 Tyson Chandler, then the Suns have a great pathway to the Finals/title. His rise must negate the downfall of CP3

schnakenpopanz wrote:He earned Player of the Week.
https://www.si.com/nba/suns/news/phoenix-suns-deandre-ayton-western-conference-player-week

Played with a lot more passion in the last two weeks or so.
Maybe it was all for good that he stayed.

What do you mean "turned the corner"?

He's been good since the start (18ppg 10rpg as rookie) and improved as a defender the seasons after. He has always HELD BACK in the Suns system and when he gets close to 20 shots he puts up big scoring numbers at 60% clip.

What you are seeing the last 2 games is the Suns setting him up more due to make up for lack of CP3, Cam Johnson and cold shooting from Booker (early).

And he was HUGE in the 2020-2021 playoff run for the Suns, he was the Suns MVP during that run until he hit the Giannis, Lopez and Portis wall in the Finals.

thamadkant wrote:

schnakenpopanz wrote:He earned Player of the Week.
https://www.si.com/nba/suns/news/phoenix-suns-deandre-ayton-western-conference-player-week

Played with a lot more passion in the last two weeks or so.
Maybe it was all for good that he stayed.

What do you mean "turned the corner"?

He's been good since the start (18ppg 10rpg as rookie) and improved as a defender the seasons after. He has always HELD BACK in the Suns system and when he gets close to 20 shots he puts up big scoring numbers at 60% clip.

What you are seeing the last 2 games is the Suns setting him up more due to make up for lack of CP3, Cam Johnson and cold shooting from Booker (early).

And he was HUGE in the 2020-2021 playoff run for the Suns, he was the Suns MVP during that run until he hit the Giannis, Lopez and Portis wall in the Finals.

If you listen to the criticsm he gets, he is treated of an above avg role player at best.
Not my words.

schnakenpopanz wrote:

thamadkant wrote:

schnakenpopanz wrote:He earned Player of the Week.
https://www.si.com/nba/suns/news/phoenix-suns-deandre-ayton-western-conference-player-week

Played with a lot more passion in the last two weeks or so.
Maybe it was all for good that he stayed.

What do you mean "turned the corner"?

He's been good since the start (18ppg 10rpg as rookie) and improved as a defender the seasons after. He has always HELD BACK in the Suns system and when he gets close to 20 shots he puts up big scoring numbers at 60% clip.

What you are seeing the last 2 games is the Suns setting him up more due to make up for lack of CP3, Cam Johnson and cold shooting from Booker (early).

And he was HUGE in the 2020-2021 playoff run for the Suns, he was the Suns MVP during that run until he hit the Giannis, Lopez and Portis wall in the Finals.

If you listen to the criticsm he gets, he is treated of an above avg role player at best.
Not my words.

No worries. Even on Suns board as one guy said sometimes you feel like people talk about Kwame Brown.

So this week he played:
- The Knicks with Mitchell Robinson coming off of injury (17 mins) / starting Hartenstein
- The Lakers where AD had a field day (37 pts on 11-17 shooting with 21 boards)
- The Pistons combination of Bagley's defensive skills and a 19 year old Jalen Duren constantly battling foul trouble.
- The Jazz with their Charmin Ultra-soft front court duo of Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk (granted with them throwing in Jarred Vanderbilt as a 3rd forward as a stop-gap) Markkanen went off for 38 points against him on 15-18 shooting btw.

Not exactly the best opponents and/or when he did have marquee players to guard they kind of did well against him?

He's a quality center that is never going to be a 1 or 2 option on your team that's being paid like a 1 or 2 option. I haven't really seen any new developments in terms of him developing any sort of new facets to his game. Numbers-wise he's virtually identical to prior seasons.

So no. He hasn't turned a corner at all. He's exactly the same as he was before. If you valued him highly prior you will value him highly now. If you don't then you won't.

He'll always be compared to Luka

With CP3 out this is not surprising. He always plays better and get more touches when Chris Paul doesnt play. Happened the last 3 years his number goes up by a good margin. With Paul they tend to use him for lobs and bail outs and restrict his offensive play.

No cp3 means he can be himself .

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I'm not sure what he's turning the corner from, he had a good week as the team won, it's not like he was incapable of having good weeks or hasn't in the past.

His turning of the corner would be for him to go from good player to top player and that definitely didn't just happen this week, lol

sunsbg wrote:His role was reduced to a lob finisher on offense with CP3. Setting screens and playing defense was always of higher priority. Now with CP3 out Suns need more out of him on offensive end to stay relevant. He can score. He's a good passer as well.

I thought I saw a lot of games recently with him not really shooting that much relative to minutes. I checked since Payne became the starter, he's taking 12.2 FGA in 31.6 mpg, his high was 19 FGA in the recent game.

The games before that he averaged 11.6 FGA/G in 25.8 mpg and his high was 22 FGA. Seems like Monty has been playing him more minutes recently though.

His shot attempts are lower relative to his playing time though. He had some big games recently, but overall he's averaging 17 ppg in 31.6 mpg vs 15.3 ppg in 25.8 mpg.

No. Not really. He needs to show a measure of consistency, drive, and focus. He has yet to do that on a nightly basis and over the course of a full season. Personally speaking, I don't think he has it in him.



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Oftentimes centers get judged on things that are out of their control. You hear stuff like "he just needs to be more aggressive" as if the center can decide where the ball goes after they set a screen.

I hope not, because him, Bridges, and Booker gonna be title hunting for the next 5 years if he plays like an All-Star Center.


edit: And Warriors have no answer for him.

Invictus88 wrote:So this week he played:
- The Knicks with Mitchell Robinson coming off of injury (17 mins) / starting Hartenstein
- The Lakers where AD had a field day (37 pts on 11-17 shooting with 21 boards)
- The Pistons combination of Bagley's defensive skills and a 19 year old Jalen Duren constantly battling foul trouble.
- The Jazz with their Charmin Ultra-soft front court duo of Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk (granted with them throwing in Jarred Vanderbilt as a 3rd forward as a stop-gap) Markkanen went off for 38 points against him on 15-18 shooting btw.

Not exactly the best opponents and/or when he did have marquee players to guard they kind of did well against him?

He's a quality center that is never going to be a 1 or 2 option on your team that's being paid like a 1 or 2 option. I haven't really seen any new developments in terms of him developing any sort of new facets to his game. Numbers-wise he's virtually identical to prior seasons.

So no. He hasn't turned a corner at all. He's exactly the same as he was before. If you valued him highly prior you will value him highly now. If you don't then you won't.

Markkanen had 15 points on 4-13 shooting. Suns also played extremely well when Ayton was on the floor vs the Lakers. Davis did a lot of his damage when Ayton sat.

HotelVitale wrote:Damn this changes week to week. Couple weeks ago I saw him play twice and he looked meh and uninspired (against my Sixers and national TV vs GSW), and some podcast around that time had a segment that was basically 'so is Ayton toast?' Couple good games against good matchups and we all get to dream again.

He was catching a lot of heat for underperforming. To be fair to him he was dealing with an ankle injury that he played through and was clearly bothering him. It wasn't until about week and a half ago that he was back to 100%. Aggressivenes and assertiveness has something us Suns fans have been asking more of from him and he's finally delivering. I hope he keeps this up all season long.

Invictus88 wrote:So this week he played:
- The Knicks with Mitchell Robinson coming off of injury (17 mins) / starting Hartenstein
- The Lakers where AD had a field day (37 pts on 11-17 shooting with 21 boards)
- The Pistons combination of Bagley's defensive skills and a 19 year old Jalen Duren constantly battling foul trouble.
- The Jazz with their Charmin Ultra-soft front court duo of Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk (granted with them throwing in Jarred Vanderbilt as a 3rd forward as a stop-gap) Markkanen went off for 38 points against him on 15-18 shooting btw.

Not exactly the best opponents and/or when he did have marquee players to guard they kind of did well against him?

He's a quality center that is never going to be a 1 or 2 option on your team that's being paid like a 1 or 2 option. I haven't really seen any new developments in terms of him developing any sort of new facets to his game. Numbers-wise he's virtually identical to prior seasons.

So no. He hasn't turned a corner at all. He's exactly the same as he was before. If you valued him highly prior you will value him highly now. If you don't then you won't.

AD was 2 of 6 when guarded by DA that game and had 3 TOV.