Would you offer Ayo an extension?

[drosestruts]

Ayo's really good at scoring at the rim and can be a good point of attack defender.

This is however also true of Tre Jones who is now under contract for 3 years.

Tre last year was also a better shooter, is a better playmaker, turns the ball over less, fouls less, and is a much better free throw shooter.

If both play well, and we're able to re-sign Ayo on a team friendly deal I don't mind having talented players on the bench.

But this team still does have some pretty big holes (like the center position). Ayo will likely be 4th on our guard depth chart at best, playing behind Giddey, White, and Jones.

Should we be investing in this position given our makeup and other needs?

It's just a weird spot with Ayo. Why would he sign a team friendly extension? What would be the team's motivation for giving him a lucartive offer he would accept now? At the end of the season if he underperforms - why would we want to keep him. If he overperforms - is it financially responsible to keep him given our other investments at the guard position already?

If Ayo has a good season, I could see him being a big sign and trade candidate. It's hard for me to see him staying here in Chicago.

[Infinity2152]

Ayo played college ball at Illinois and has been here his whole career. If that's not a player you get a hometown discount from, who is? I don't see why he wouldn't sign a team friendly extension, given his last year. Guaranteed money, would be 2-3 yrs with an option, so he has plenty of time to get another once he's upped his value.

Why would we do it? At a team friendly price? Because we'll only have 6 guys next year anyway, and we have to add more anyway. Most of these guys are trade bait at any given time, Tre Jones and Ayo included. Some team offers a first or a couple of seconds for Jones, we take it and slide Ayo in at a bargain. We're getting infatuated with guys who have been here half a season, Ayo was reportedly injured last year. Bad season, best time to get a deal.

Let's be realistic, the numbers we're talking about for Ayo are third-fourth guard money at best. I think Tre Jones is a steal and partly because of the market. Ayo level players will be getting $10-$12 mill next summer, they will have flaws.

Comparing his defense to Huerter's needs context. Ayo played with Coby White, Lavine, Derozan, Vucevic most of his career. He's started half his games so he probably got the toughest defensive assignment between PG, SG and SF. Would imagine Huerter never guards PG's, which eliminates many of the fastest players in the league. Huerter would probably get the easiest defensive assignment between SG and SF.

If you're a pretty good defender but EVERY game you're defending the other team's best player, it could make you look much and statistically be worse than you are.

Just speculation, but I'd imagine Donovan would trust Ayo's defense on Curry or Booker over Coby White's or Lavine's.

[sco]

Ayo played college ball at Illinois and has been here his whole career. If that's not a player you get a hometown discount from, who is? I don't see why he wouldn't sign a team friendly extension, given his last year. Guaranteed money, would be 2-3 yrs with an option, so he has plenty of time to get another once he's upped his value.

Why would we do it? At a team friendly price? Because we'll only have 6 guys next year anyway, and we have to add more anyway. Most of these guys are trade bait at any given time, Tre Jones and Ayo included. Some team offers a first or a couple of seconds for Jones, we take it and slide Ayo in at a bargain. We're getting infatuated with guys who have been here half a season, Ayo was reportedly injured last year. Bad season, best time to get a deal.

Let's be realistic, the numbers we're talking about for Ayo are third-fourth guard money at best. I think Tre Jones is a steal and partly because of the market. Ayo level players will be getting $10-$12 mill next summer, they will have flaws.

Comparing his defense to Huerter's needs context. Ayo played with Coby White, Lavine, Derozan, Vucevic most of his career. He's started half his games so he probably got the toughest defensive assignment between PG, SG and SF. Would imagine Huerter never guards PG's, which eliminates many of the fastest players in the league. Huerter would probably get the easiest defensive assignment between SG and SF.

If you're a pretty good defender but EVERY game you're defending the other team's best player, it could make you look much and statistically be worse than you are.

Just speculation, but I'd imagine Donovan would trust Ayo's defense on Curry or Booker over Coby White's or Lavine's.

If Ayo's minutes fall below 15 per game, which is possible, give our roster, I could see him wanted to keep his options open to find a bigger role with another team next season. I don't have a problem offering him an extension; however, I think the Bulls should keep enough cap space heading into next season to take on via trade or offer a MAX contract.

[Infinity2152]

Our cap next summer currently:

Giddey: $25 mill
Wiliams: $18 mill
Okoro $11.8 mill
Jalen Smith $9.4 mill
Tre Jones $8 mill
Matas, Noa and Phillips (if we pick up his option) $13.8 mill

There's nobody we'd even want give a max in 2026, imo. Even so, don't see how signing Ayo to a $6-10 mill AAV contract would prevent that. We're spending that cap space summer 2026 anyway, and not just on big names, we'll need like 6 or more players. He should be a tradeable asset, so $6 mill extra in cap space vs $6mill for a player who can play 10+ minutes while hopefully retaining or increasing value, I take the player.

The contract we give Ao, the money doesn't just disappear, we have a trade piece of equal value. Better value actually if it's a team friendly deal, by definition that would be better than a standard deal.

[dougthonus]

Our cap next summer currently:

Giddey: $25 mill
Wiliams: $18 mill
Okoro $11.8 mill
Jalen Smith $9.4 mill
Tre Jones $8 mill
Matas, Noa and Phillips (if we pick up his option) $13.8 mill

There's nobody we'd even want give a max in 2026, imo. Even so, don't see how signing Ayo to a $6-10 mill AAV contract would prevent that. We're spending that cap space summer 2026 anyway, and not just on big names, we'll need like 6 or more players. He should be a tradeable asset, so $6 mill extra in cap space vs $6mill for a player who can play 10+ minutes while hopefully retaining or increasing value, I take the player.

The contract we give Ao, the money doesn't just disappear, we have a trade piece of equal value. Better value actually if it's a team friendly deal, by definition that would be better than a standard deal.

I think an open question is what Ayo's actual cost is. I think there's a wide gap between the eye test and the statistical output for me. The statistical output level says he's not even a $5M player, the eye test says he's worth more. I'd guess there might be a wide gap in what his expected value is because of that, and the team/player may not be able to come to a reasonable extension discussion.

I would guess at this point that it's simply not going to happen prior to closer to the trade deadline (if at all), because if it were going to happen prior to the season starting, it likely would happen already. Likely means both sides are in "wait and see" mode.

[MrSparkle]

Ayo is puzzling . Stats bad; eye-test good (for most part). I’d say his mediocre handles and shooting (for a combo guard) put him right at the edge. His shooting would need a noticeable jump to get a big pay-day. Otherwise I do see him in the $6-10M (MLE at best) bracket… which is concerning, because that means the entire league can offer him a deal, and whatever amount Chicago pay over that to retain him will probably be an overpay.

Stylistically he’d thrive in an OKC or LAC, in an optimal 5th-8th man situation… and more importantly, paired with rim protection, his solid team defense would shine, whereas here all roads lead to Vuc. But those teams’ rotations are set.

Houston, Phoenix, Miami, LAL seem like good spots for him. We are so deep in young guards and wings on the verge of getting new contracts, it makes no sense keeping Ayo unless he jumps out this year.

[League Circles]

Our cap next summer currently:

Giddey: $25 mill
Wiliams: $18 mill
Okoro $11.8 mill
Jalen Smith $9.4 mill
Tre Jones $8 mill
Matas, Noa and Phillips (if we pick up his option) $13.8 mill

There's nobody we'd even want give a max in 2026, imo. Even so, don't see how signing Ayo to a $6-10 mill AAV contract would prevent that. We're spending that cap space summer 2026 anyway, and not just on big names, we'll need like 6 or more players. He should be a tradeable asset, so $6 mill extra in cap space vs $6mill for a player who can play 10+ minutes while hopefully retaining or increasing value, I take the player.

The contract we give Ayo, the money doesn't just disappear, we have a trade piece of equal value. Better value actually if it's a team friendly deal, by definition that would be better than a standard deal.

I don't think we should think of summer 2026 payroll strictly in terms of available UFAs to sign directly with our cap space. More likely, we'd do a salary lopsided trade for an impact player TBD. Something like trading a guy like Noa or our pick next summer, the Portland pick or something for a max type guy already under contract.


We might also need to kick the can down the road a year which is a whole different can of unknown worms.
A deal for Ayo could be absolutely no problem or prevent us from getting an impact guy, or admittedly be crucial in trading for that impact guy.

[sco]

Our cap next summer currently:

Giddey: $25 mill
Wiliams: $18 mill
Okoro $11.8 mill
Jalen Smith $9.4 mill
Tre Jones $8 mill
Matas, Noa and Phillips (if we pick up his option) $13.8 mill

There's nobody we'd even want give a max in 2026, imo. Even so, don't see how signing Ayo to a $6-10 mill AAV contract would prevent that. We're spending that cap space summer 2026 anyway, and not just on big names, we'll need like 6 or more players. He should be a tradeable asset, so $6 mill extra in cap space vs $6mill for a player who can play 10+ minutes while hopefully retaining or increasing value, I take the player.

The contract we give Ao, the money doesn't just disappear, we have a trade piece of equal value. Better value actually if it's a team friendly deal, by definition that would be better than a standard deal.

I think an open question is what Ayo's actual cost is. I think there's a wide gap between the eye test and the statistical output for me. The statistical output level says he's not even a $5M player, the eye test says he's worth more. I'd guess there might be a wide gap in what his expected value is because of that, and the team/player may not be able to come to a reasonable extension discussion.

I would guess at this point that it's simply not going to happen prior to closer to the trade deadline (if at all), because if it were going to happen prior to the season starting, it likely would happen already. Likely means both sides are in "wait and see" mode.

I think the rumors regarding the FO being close to trading Ayo over the summer suggest he'll be traded at/by the deadline if they can get even a 2nd rounder for him. We talk about playing Vuc to up his trade value (not true IMO), but in Ayo's case, I think we (and the league) would all benefit from seeing if he can regain his offensive and defensive game post injury. Honestly, we'd be better off giving him all of Pat's minutes that he's not playing backup PF because there would at least be a chance at a return on those invested minutes.

[League Circles]

It's hard for me to wrap my head around anyone who believes we should essentially be tanking also believing that we should extend Ayo.

[Infinity2152]

Extending Ayo is an asset decision to me, not related to whether we should be tanking at all. By definition, if he's taking a TEAM FRIENDLY deal, he's likely underpriced. Meaning if he looks like he's a $10 mill player, he's getting $6-8 mill. We likely will be adding several players in that range in 2026, regardless of whether we sign a star. We're not adding 6 guys at min and vet min. Vet min is $4 mill in 2026.

Ayo was reportedly injured most of last year. His numbers were not great. He was out half the season. Great time to make a deal. Worst time to re-sign somebody is when they're coming off a great season. Coby has a great season, we could see $40+ mill. Please stop using this summer's deals as a fair metric, a lot of average role players will get $10+ mill this summer.

Objectively, he should be a value coming off a bad season, statistically and health related.

Subjectively, he could be a value with a "home team" discount. Whole point of an extension with a player of Ayo's level, they sacrifice AAV to get guaranteed money locked up sooner.

I'm not nearly as down on Ayo as many in here are. Don't worship advanced stats, I watch games and Ayo has been one of our best defenders for years and has guarded many All-Stars. This idea we're going to have a team of perfect players with no flaws 1-15 needs to stop.

An exactly equivalent $10 mill player will get $10-$15 AAV in open market free agency. Not likely to get under $10 mill until teams run out of money. Having Ayo at $6-$8 mill already is a good deal.

Now add in the fact that he was second round pick that has been here 4 years. Another $18-24 mill guaranteed over 3 years would probably look much better to him than it would to Pat Will, a top pick who's always started. Ayo's a solid two way player to me and we need players like that (Caruso comes to mind) on the bench. Could be a popular locker room guy too, he'd be one of our "vets" at 25.

If weighing adding a $10 mill player EXACTLY at Ayo's level next summer who's unfamiliar with the team, the city, the players, offense, and we paid a premium to get in free agency so we paid $12 mill, vs extending Ayo at $7 mill right, he plays the rest of the season as that $10 mill player, and we have him for $7 mill next season.

Unless we trade him. I HATE losing players to free agency and getting nothing in return, and just flat out believe extending Ayo cheaply is the same as buying an undervalued asset. The fact he could be here long term is a benefit, not a necessity.

[dougthonus]

It's hard for me to wrap my head around anyone who believes we should essentially be tanking also believing that we should extend Ayo.

Those are probably two totally different questions. One is "what would you do if you ran the team?" and the other is "What should we do given AK is running the team?". I would have traded Ayo last summer. With AK running the team, I think extending Ayo is an interesting question, because I know he's not going to tank, so then it's just about whether you can turn this into a long term value contract or not.

Also, not sure anyone is on team tank really anymore. The time to do that was when you could have gotten a crap ton of extra draft picks, not now.

[MrSparkle]

The team is set up for a 32-win floor and 6-8 seed ceiling.

My overall opinion is we have too many rotation players for how mid our record will be. Billy can sweet talk everybody as long as he wants, but solid roleplayers aren’t going to want to sit on the bench and stare at guys marginally better/worse than them compete for a play-in.

So unless another injury barrage hits, or we have some insane overachievement of a season, this FO needs to make some consolidation trades, or send the serviceable players out for prospects or picks. Ayo is in the middle of that; Matas, Noa, Patrick, Terry, Phillips, Tre should play over him from a long term salary and development angle. Okoro, Huerter ought to be ahead in the rotation. Are these guys gonna play 15-20 mpg? That’s an easy way to get everybody shooting a colder percentage.

[dougthonus]

Ayo played college ball at Illinois and has been here his whole career. If that's not a player you get a hometown discount from, who is? I don't see why he wouldn't sign a team friendly extension, given his last year. Guaranteed money, would be 2-3 yrs with an option, so he has plenty of time to get another once he's upped his value.

I think no player gives you a team friendly discount, but fundamentally, the guy who doesn't have generational wealth yet, is the _least_ likely guy to give you one, and Ayo has never really hit the big pay day. His career earnings will be 23.5M after this year + whatever endorsements he has, and he'd be signing here to stay in a crowded / uncertain situation to raise his value on his next deal.

I'm all for signing him if we could get a good price FWIW, but if I'm Ayo, I'd have extremely little incentive to give the Bulls a deal compared to say Josh Giddey who already has generational wealth, more endorsement potential, and a guaranteed bigger role here than just about any other place he could go in the NBA.

Let's be realistic, the numbers we're talking about for Ayo are third-fourth guard money at best. I think Tre Jones is a steal and partly because of the market. Ayo level players will be getting $10-$12 mill next summer, they will have flaws.

Yeah, I think this is the rub. If Ayo is a UFA and he's looking at 10-12 million in a non crowded backcourt where he knows he'll play, that's a way better scenario than signing with us for less than that number, and if we already have Tre, Okoro, and Giddey locked in and would like to bring back Coby then we seem unlikely to want to meet that 10-12M number. It would be better for Ayo in the short term and better for him in the long term to wait unless we pony up real money.

That said, it's certainly worth having the discussion, maybe Ayo doesn't see things the way we do. Like if we could lock in Ayo for a long term deal at 10M a year, I'd definitely consider it, there is some risk there, like I said statistical production says he's worth much less, but I (perhaps irrationally) believe he's worth more.

[League Circles]

It's hard for me to wrap my head around anyone who believes we should essentially be tanking also believing that we should extend Ayo.

Those are probably two totally different questions. One is "what would you do if you ran the team?" and the other is "What should we do given AK is running the team?". I would have traded Ayo last summer. With AK running the team, I think extending Ayo is an interesting question, because I know he's not going to tank, so then it's just about whether you can turn this into a long term value contract or not.

Also, not sure anyone is on team tank really anymore. The time to do that was when you could have gotten a crap ton of extra draft picks, not now.

I just don't understand what the bolded part means. It's like asking "what should AK do to deal with his own demons and dumb thoughts?"

It's really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that we've ever under AK had any assets that we could have got a "crap ton of picks" for. I personally don't believe Vuc, Zach, Demar or Ball were ever worth much in trade while under contract with us, and I think we got very good value for Caruso. I understand the angle that we wasted time and hurt the value of our own pick(s), but not that we squandered trade assets. Might have missed out on a few worthless second rounders I suppose. If we're focused on that level of very incrementally increased odds at getting a difference maker, to me it's clear that not extending Ayo gives us the same incrementally increased odds at getting a difference maker, because with him gone, there will be more minutes, more cap space, and theoretically at least a couple fewer wins to improve the quality of our subsequent picks.

[Infinity2152]

I'm with you in thinking that he's worth it as a player. The whole discussion of whether to offer him a team friendly extension is that he would accept a team friendly extension. If he won't accept it, we're talking about a different deal.

I could see if the argument is "Should we sign him to what we consider a market value extension at this point?". I think "Should we sign him to a team friendly deal" is another matter. Seems like people are saying we shouldn't extend him to a deal defined as team-friendly, which to me means a bargain deal. Giddey and Jones are the only guards guaranteed to be here next year, Okoro's penciled in at forward, I think, although he might be good at SG. Don't know how his ball handling is.

Over the next few years, think Ayo will be at least a useful player on whatever team he is on, and could be a great deal. We'd take a similar risk with any $8-$10 mill FA we sign, and they have no familiarity with the team. As for money, he's making $7.5 this year, and he just saw Jones, who's probably about his equal, sign here for cheap. He's not coming off a rookie contract. Don't see a reason he'd expect a huge pay jump guaranteed after a down year. He was coming off a solid year when he re-signed, I think he could have gotten more in FA. He and Coby may have already given us a home-team discount, ijs. Second year he played 80 games, 26 minutes a game and got a $7 mill AAV contract. Next two years he played 29 and 30 minutes/gm. Lot of minutes/value for $7 mill, that's starter minutes. He's started half his games here.

He's played that many minutes in a crowded backcourt, Lavine and Ball just left, we added Giddey before the season and then Jones.

[League Circles]

Extending Ayo is an asset decision to me, not related to whether we should be tanking at all. By definition, if he's taking a TEAM FRIENDLY deal, he's likely underpriced. Meaning if he looks like he's a $10 mill player, he's getting $6-8 mill. We likely will be adding several players in that range in 2026, regardless of whether we sign a star. We're not adding 6 guys at min and vet min. Vet min is $4 mill in 2026.

IMO, players like that never have static values. For example Ayo is worth a LOT more to a team that doesn't already have Jones and Okoro under contract than he is to a team that does.

Vet min is not going to be 4 mil in 2026 and league minimum is the key anyway. It's 1.3 million. That's all that matters for cap hold purposes. Pretty sure the cap hit for all vet min guys is that same as the zero experience league minimum anyway.

This is how I see us in a year:

5: Smith
4: Matas, Essengue
3: Giddey, Patrick
2: Okoro
1: Coby (likely but obviously not for sure), Jones

Plus our 2026 FRP and maybe the Portland pick as assets.

With our pick, that's 9 guys. I don't know why we would even be thinking about more role players when we expect 9 known roster spots and are in need of difference makers. I feel confident that if we can't sign or trade for a difference maker, we can do things like keep a Hurter, a Collins, an Ayo, etc for a one year deal which to me is preferable in terms of flexibility over keeping Ayo long term. I just feel like you can always get a guy like Ayo with a cap exception, and the depth of a team immediately following a cap space summer should never be prioritized IMO. You can always add depth pretty quickly after doing so especially if you have playing time available.

[dougthonus]

I just don't understand what the bolded part means. It's like asking "what should AK do to deal with his own demons and dumb thoughts?"

It means, we know the Bulls are going to try to "rebuild while being competitive", so if you are making moves within that lens, what moves would you make while removing other strategies (like trying to build through the draft) from the table.

It's really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that we've ever under AK had any assets that we could have got a "crap ton of picks" for.

These are reported deals we turned down:
3 1sts for Zach
2 1sts for Caruso (one in the lottery)
1 1st for Lonzo + 1 year of dead salary

I recommended trading Vuc when you definitely could have gotten a pick and trading Coby and Ayo when you could have likely gotten two 1sts for each last summer. We could have trivially had one for DeMar except we were too close to the tax to take on salary in a S&T, but we almost certainly could have gotten 2 if we traded him after his all NBA season when I suggested moving him given that one was on the table as a S&T.

That's 5 additional 1st rounders for sure (we did get one back for Zach), and likely somewhere at a minimum of 4 and as many as 7 others that we have less definitive reports on, but I would guess if we had followed my "trade high recommendations" over the past 4 years, that we'd have 10+ additional 1st round picks relative to what we actually have.

[League Circles]

I just don't understand what the bolded part means. It's like asking "what should AK do to deal with his own demons and dumb thoughts?"

It means, we know the Bulls are going to try to "rebuild while being competitive", so if you are making moves within that lens, what moves would you make while removing other strategies (like trying to build through the draft) from the table.

It's really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that we've ever under AK had any assets that we could have got a "crap ton of picks" for.

These are reported deals we turned down:
3 1sts for Zach
2 1sts for Caruso (one in the lottery)
1 1st for Lonzo + 1 year of dead salary

I recommended trading Vuc when you definitely could have gotten a pick and trading Coby and Ayo when you could have likely gotten two 1sts for each last summer. We could have trivially had one for DeMar except we were too close to the tax to take on salary in a S&T, but we almost certainly could have gotten 2 if we traded him after his all NBA season when I suggested moving him given that one was on the table as a S&T.

That's 5 additional 1st rounders for sure (we did get one back for Zach), and likely somewhere at a minimum of 4 and as many as 7 others that we have less definitive reports on, but I would guess if we had followed my "trade high recommendations" over the past 4 years, that we'd have 10+ additional 1st round picks relative to what we actually have.

We can compete while improving our chances to get lucky in the draft now by NOT extending Ayo.

"First round picks" mean absolutely nothing to me. Unless they're identified and in the very near future, their projected value to me defaults at basically zero. If they're bad picks, like a #27, I basically consider them negative assets right off the bat (in the way I see guys like Terry and Phillips as negative assets).

Like give me Josh Giddey ALL DAY over two generic firsts, even if "one is in the lottery".

Teams should ALWAYS consider how every move will affect their future draft picks. I never think it should be all or nothing. So just cause we're not tanking doesn't mean we should try to "win now" by extending Ayo.

[Infinity2152]

Extending Ayo is an asset decision to me, not related to whether we should be tanking at all. By definition, if he's taking a TEAM FRIENDLY deal, he's likely underpriced. Meaning if he looks like he's a $10 mill player, he's getting $6-8 mill. We likely will be adding several players in that range in 2026, regardless of whether we sign a star. We're not adding 6 guys at min and vet min. Vet min is $4 mill in 2026.

IMO, players like that never have static values. For example Ayo is worth a LOT more to a team that doesn't already have Jones and Okoro under contract than he is to a team that does.

Vet min is not going to be 4 mil in 2026 and league minimum is the key anyway. It's 1.3 million. That's all that matters for cap hold purposes. Pretty sure the cap hit for all vet min guys is that same as the zero experience league minimum anyway.

This is how I see us in a year:

5: Smith
4: Matas, Essengue
3: Giddey, Patrick
2: Okoro
1: Coby (likely but obviously not for sure), Jones

Plus our 2026 FRP and maybe the Portland pick as assets.

With our pick, that's 9 guys. I don't know why we would even be thinking about more role players when we expect 9 known roster spots and are in need of difference makers. I feel confident that if we can't sign or trade for a difference maker, we can do things like keep a Hurter, a Collins, an Ayo, etc for a one year deal which to me is preferable in terms of flexibility over keeping Ayo long term. I just feel like you can always get a guy like Ayo with a cap exception, and the depth of a team immediately following a cap space summer should never be prioritized IMO. You can always add depth pretty quickly after doing so especially if you have playing time available.

Everybody entitled to their own opinion . Like vet min is not going to be $4mill in 2026. Quick AI check came up with $3.9 mill, if you have a more accurate prediction, please share it if that's an important point to correct. If you think we're likely to have a bunch of $1-3 mill players, feel free to hold that thought. We're going into the summer projected to be a top cap team, just right for signing a ton of minimum contracts, lol. Half of the remaining 6-7 players make $5.7 mill or less already.

The point of him being worth a lot more to other teams is vital in the logic of retaining him as a trade asset. Particularly at team-friendly, read "bargain" deal. Re-sign Ayo, both Ayo and Tre Jones are trade assets in the summer.

I don't know why we WOULDN"T be thinking about role players when we expect 9 known roster spots. We're not adding 9 starters. I think your feeling that you can just get an equivalent guy for cheap weighs into this. Unless you think Huerter or Collins get $6-$10 mill next year, not really relevant. Long term is also relative, 3 yrs with team option year three I wouldn't consider long term at all. That's one more guaranteed year than you're suggesting with a one year deal for a 25 year old. How old are Huerter and Collins?

Doesn't appear you have a good view of Ayo at all, but he's played damn near starter minutes the last two years. I guess you could find a guy Billy is comfortable playing 30 minutes for $7 mill, but I wouldn't bet on it. Again, Ayo is just 25 and had season ending surgery last year, didn't he? What I don't see is how signing him to a team friendly deal would hamper us more than signing any other player in that price range this summer. We're not going to get four players that's are perfect fits for $8-$10 mill next year. Maybe another long forward would be better, because we don't have those? Starting center for $10-$12 mill?

If we don't extend Ayo, he's still here and playing! Not going to affect our record one bit whether or not we extend him, only whether we trade him. He would probably have more trade value if extended than expiring, right? If he's good enough keeping him gets us more wins, maybe that's a player we want to have in 2026 if it's a good deal?

[GoBlue72391]

The team is set up for a 32-win floor and 6-8 seed ceiling.

My overall opinion is we have too many rotation players for how mid our record will be. Billy can sweet talk everybody as long as he wants, but solid roleplayers aren’t going to want to sit on the bench and stare at guys marginally better/worse than them compete for a play-in.

So unless another injury barrage hits, or we have some insane overachievement of a season, this FO needs to make some consolidation trades, or send the serviceable players out for prospects or picks. Ayo is in the middle of that; Matas, Noa, Patrick, Terry, Phillips, Tre should play over him from a long term salary and development angle. Okoro, Huerter ought to be ahead in the rotation. Are these guys gonna play 15-20 mpg? That’s an easy way to get everybody shooting a colder percentage.

Why on earth should Pat, Terry, and Phillips be ahead of Ayo in the rotation?