The Draft Thread: Ayton Vs Doncic 1

[Kerrsed]

Marquese Chriss was regarded as one of the worst defenders in college and has become a plus defender in the NBA within 2 seasons, that'd be the type of outcome we're hoping for.

But at the same time watching Houston vs Golden State everything is perimeter orientated Chris Paul score 10 points on David West in 4 straight posessions so anyone who is weak on the perimeter is going to be targetted.

But thats what make Chris Paul an elite player, its because he can score on ANYONE. And cmon, David West is damn near 40, not athletic, and sloooooooooooow.

That just like people saying this guy or that guy wouldnt be able to shut down Westbrook....or Curry.....or Harden. Like who does? On top of that you're talking about Bigs (Pf/C's) not being able to, what current bigs in this league can? Even the top defensive bigs cant. What you need is decent defensive guards that can get in their way, put a body on them, slow them down. Thats about it. But once again, thats what makes players like that Elite.

I mean you dont hear me talking about guards that cant stop KAT. It shouldnt be their job to. Sure they can be guarding them due to a screen or something, but still, im not looking at it happening all game every game. What players have been able to shut down KAT on offense? There really arnt many, when you look at his games played stats, even his low scoring games he is shooting a high percentage (Over 50%).

[Kerrsed]

If we select Ayton, I think his nickname should be the Terminator or Ayton the destroyer or something similar to that. Ayton just look so Arnold to me.

The A-Town Bully

Read they call him A-Town (Due to Arizona and Ayton). He is also always talking about Bully this and Bully that (Bully Ball, Bully Season), so combine the two.

[King4Day]

McDonough said he believes questions about Ayton's defense stem from the fact he had to play alongside another 7-footer, Dusan Ristic, in college.

"So he was guarding away from the basket on the perimeter," McDonough said. "In the NBA, obviously, he's a center. He's a five. He slides well. He moves his feet well. He's a tremendous athlete in terms of strength, fluidity, coordination, all of that."

McDonough said Ayton "has a high-level feel for the game, especially on the offensive end of the court. And from my experience, guys who have that at the offensive end of the floor usually, in time, are able to translate that to the defensive end of the court as well."

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23607586/phoenix-gm-ryan-mcdonough-says-there-overwhelming-likelihood-suns-keep-no-1-pick-june-nba-draft

[JMac1]

This is somewhat of an interesting back and forth....gotta expand to read the whole thread...20+ tweets...these were most recent ones..I think if you click on bottom one it expands.

Read on Twitter

I stopped reading once he tried saying that Deandre Jordan isnt a good defender, just good at defensive rebounds. Yeah....2 time All-Defensive 1st team and the leading shot blocker in the league for 2 seasons. Dude didnt make the All NBA 1st Team (Once) or All NBA 3rd Team (Twice) because of his stellar offensive skills.

Ok, i just read more. LMAO, DO Jordan is a bad defender and just good at getting DRB's and Blocks, and then says Ayton will be good at DRB's and blocks. So that means Ayton is like Jordan (When it comes to D)??? If so, thats EXCELLENT! Imagine Jordan on the defensive end with an ELITE offensive game (Like Ayton has). That is a generational HOF player!

At the end of the day, its Ayton is smart and has unique tools; so if he wants to defend at a high level he can, he needs coaching and effort. Let’s see what Ayton is made of. Let’s see if Booker holds him accountable and Booker holds himself accountable on D.

[bwgood77]

This is somewhat of an interesting back and forth....gotta expand to read the whole thread...20+ tweets...these were most recent ones..I think if you click on bottom one it expands.

Read on Twitter

I stopped reading once he tried saying that Deandre Jordan isnt a good defender, just good at defensive rebounds. Yeah....2 time All-Defensive 1st team and the leading shot blocker in the league for 2 seasons. Dude didnt make the All NBA 1st Team (Once) or All NBA 3rd Team (Twice) because of his stellar offensive skills.

Ok, i just read more. LMAO, DO Jordan is a bad defender and just good at getting DRB's and Blocks, and then says Ayton will be good at DRB's and blocks. So that means Ayton is like Jordan (When it comes to D)??? If so, thats EXCELLENT! Imagine Jordan on the defensive end with an ELITE offensive game (Like Ayton has). That is a generational HOF player!

Yeah, Jordan a good DREB (especially after his first five years) and good at blocks. I'm guessing he was talking about on/off with defensive impact, but it didn't seem like he gave him enough credit. Ayton should be good at DREB and a decent shot blocker (and could potentially be good in this respect) and should be better at switching and guarding out on the perimeter than Jordan.

[bwgood77]

This is somewhat of an interesting back and forth....gotta expand to read the whole thread...20+ tweets...these were most recent ones..I think if you click on bottom one it expands.

Read on Twitter

I stopped reading once he tried saying that Deandre Jordan isnt a good defender, just good at defensive rebounds. Yeah....2 time All-Defensive 1st team and the leading shot blocker in the league for 2 seasons. Dude didnt make the All NBA 1st Team (Once) or All NBA 3rd Team (Twice) because of his stellar offensive skills.

Ok, i just read more. LMAO, DO Jordan is a bad defender and just good at getting DRB's and Blocks, and then says Ayton will be good at DRB's and blocks. So that means Ayton is like Jordan (When it comes to D)??? If so, thats EXCELLENT! Imagine Jordan on the defensive end with an ELITE offensive game (Like Ayton has). That is a generational HOF player!

At the end of the day, its Ayton is smart and has unique tools; so if he wants to defend at a high level he can, he needs coaching and effort. Let’s see what Ayton is made of. Let’s see if Booker holds him accountable and Booker holds himself accountable on D.

Yeah, Booker shouldn't be holding anyone accountable on D. He should focus on himself in that respect. The coaches need to attempt to hold them accountable.

[bigfoot]

https://www.google.com/amp/arizonasports.com/story/1460370/espn-jay-bilas-deandre-ayton-hall-of-fame-good/amp/


Rob Dauster

I don’t think it’s out of the question to say that he could end up being a Hall of Famer, maybe one of the 15 or 20 greatest to play the game.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nba.nbcsports.com/2018/05/25/2018-nba-draft-prospect-profile-just-how-concerned-should-we-be-about-deandre-aytons-defensive-issues/amp/

Just hoping these guys are right BW.....

What ... their last sentence says

The bad news is that, in my mind, there’s a higher-than-you’d-like chance that Ayton ends up being closer to his floor than his ceiling.

Edit: and they said his floor is Steve Adams ... 13p/9r/1b

[Kerrsed]

Its amazing what a good coach and system can do for players.

Tatum wasnt known as a good defender, but doing fine in Boston.
Brown wasnt known as a good defender, but doing fine in Boston.
Marcus Morris wasnt a good defender in HOU or PHX, but doing fine in Boston.
People use to laugh about Horfords defense in Atlanta, but he's doing Great in Boston.

I can go on and on with players that were looked at as a negative on that end, and ended up with the right team in the right system with the right coach and ended up turning that all around.

[bigfoot]

Has anyone heard if during the offseason Ayton has played against Jackson/Booker/Chriss/Bender/Chandler/Len ??? I know sometimes pros and the better college bound kids play together ??

[SuperSunsFan]

Its amazing what a good coach and system can do for players.

Tatum wasnt known as a good defender, but doing fine in Boston.
Brown wasnt known as a good defender, but doing fine in Boston.
Marcus Morris wasnt a good defender in HOU or PHX, but doing fine in Boston.
People use to laugh about Horfords defense in Atlanta, but he's doing Great in Boston.

I can go on and on with players that were looked at as a negative on that end, and ended up with the right team in the right system with the right coach and ended up turning that all around.

I remember how D'antoni turned Kendall Marshall and Earl Clark into good three point shooters, which to me was a miracle, Kendall Marshall just would not shoot the darn ball no matter how much we urged him to when he was a sun.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Bigs have been near irrelevent in the playoffs can Ayton change that in a few years?

[King4Day]

Read on Twitter

This tweet was part of the one above. I totally agree with it and think most Suns fans (pro-Ayton or pro-Doncic) have this worry.
That, what if you take the wrong player?

It'd be Oden/KD all over again. Granted, Oden was the right pick and nobody could forsee those injuries, but the Blazers got burned because of it.

[SuperSunsFan]

Read on Twitter

This tweet was part of the one above. I totally agree with it and think most Suns fans (pro-Ayton or pro-Doncic) have this worry.
That, what if you take the wrong player?

It'd be Oden/KD all over again. Granted, Oden was the right pick and nobody could forsee those injuries, but the Blazers got burned because of it.

If we choose the wrong guy just pretend we got the 2nd pick and the other guy was chosen before us. Chill out, it is just basketball, we have survived 50 years without a trophy things will still be fine even we choose the wrong guy. Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself, just pick Ayton, he pretty much got our a** covered by declaring he wanted to be a Sun. If he turns out 2b a bust, it would be understandable for fans since we had to choose him as he was the only player saying he wanted to be a Sun even when our team was the butt of the joke around the league and that kind of kindness, commitment and loyalty must be repaid or no one will ever wanted be a Sun in the future.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

This tweet was part of the one above. I totally agree with it and think most Suns fans (pro-Ayton or pro-Doncic) have this worry.
That, what if you take the wrong player?

It'd be Oden/KD all over again. Granted, Oden was the right pick and nobody could forsee those injuries, but the Blazers got burned because of it.

And then years before with Bowie. You likely had Blazers fans saying "You can't take Jordan because Drexler needs the ball in his hands...Drexler will be better with a big attracting attention."

Of course it's not Jordan we're talking about, but another big went before him too (Hakeem, or Akeem at the time) so he wasn't a clear cut #1 prospect either and a different player.

Of course Doncic's a lot different and more similar to Bird who went 6th probably in part due to his lack of elite athleticism even though he took his team to the championship scoring points, grabbing tons of boards and getting a good number of assists with his elite bbiq.

[SuperSunsFan]

Ayton is our guy, He is an Arizonian, and he is a wildcat. Doncic and Ayton's bust probabilities are about the same, it is a 50/50 chance we would choose the wrong guy. if we are destined to fail, I would much rather failing with pur guy. Doncic is not our guy, he is some player Kokoškov coached in the past, we have no obligation to commit any loyalty to him.

[Mulhollanddrive]

I wouldn't take Aaron Gordon over Joel Embiid based on playing at Arizona just take the best player.

[Villalobos]

Ayton is our guy, He is an Arizonian, and he is a wildcat. Doncic and Ayton's bust probabilities are about the same, it is a 50/50 chance we would choose the wrong guy. if we are destined to fail, I would much rather failing with pur guy. Doncic is not our guy, he is some player Kokoškov coached in the past, we have no obligation to commit any loyalty to him.

This is so bizarre to me. It'd be somewhat understandable if it was Bagley, someone actually local, but the dude is from the Bahamas and then Cali. He didn't step foot in AZ until a few years ago.

I couldn't care less about the local crap. Give me the best player. Hopefully it's Ayton if the Suns are set on him.

[SuperSunsFan]

I wouldn't take Aaron Gordon over Joel Embiid based on playing at Arizona just take the best player.

of course where a player played college is only used as a tiebreaker to decide between two players who's talent levels are about equal. I didn't say Suns should be choosing Dusan Ristic over Doncic.

[MrMiyagi]

I wouldn't take Aaron Gordon over Joel Embiid based on playing at Arizona just take the best player.

Gordon is truly over rated. People overstated his handling/playmaking and shooting. Ayton is something else entirely.

[SlovenianDragon]

for the sake of having a fun conversation, which is the worse of these two absolute worst case scenarios? Case 1: Suns draft Ayton, Ayton busts out while Doncic turns into a superstar or Case 2: Suns draft Doncic, Doncic busts out while Ayton becomes a superstar.

They are both equally bad dude

I feel that Losing Mcdyess and Amare were absolutely devastating, but we very quickly recovered when we lost Joe Johnson, Raja Bell and Barborsa filled in the void JJ left very nicely. When we lost Dragic we quickly got Booker with a lowly 13th pick to replace him. Guards are easier to find because There are just way more shorter than 6'7 players who are great basketball players, the same can not be said about big men, 6'10 or above big men who are as quick, athletic and coordinated with great hands like Amare are unicorns and you don't let him go if you have a chance to grab one.

True true true. Thats why in a league with more skilled wings It would be so nice to have the A-town bully (Thanks Kerrsed) to crush all the miserable centers of the league!