Deandre Ayton news and discussion

[NapoleonII]

Sarver will pay him.

The difference between Sarver of the late 00's and Sarver today is that he's surrounded by less arrogant folks and less "yes men". There's no McDumber who's trying to outsmart everyone and cut corners. Monty and James Jones, for all their small faults, bring years of integrity, hard work, and an incredible talent for culture-building. They also probably know how to appease Sarver, how to "handle" him.

Additionally CP3, who at this point is probably the most respected person in the arena, has also heaped praise on Ayton.

[bwgood77]

Sarver will pay him.

The difference between Sarver of the late 00's and Sarver today is that he's surrounded by less arrogant folks and less "yes men". There's no McDumber who's trying to outsmart everyone and cut corners. Monty and James Jones, for all their small faults, bring years of integrity, hard work, and an incredible talent for culture-building. They also probably know how to appease Sarver, how to "handle" him.

Additionally CP3, who at this point is probably the most respected person in the arena, has also heaped praise on Ayton.

Hopefully, but they obviously seem to be open to trading him and don't seem as if they want to pay him the max.

The Pacers and Phoenix Suns had brief dialogue around Sabonis and Deandre Ayton, multiple sources say. It did not get far, sources say, and may have been mostly informal and broadly exploratory -- and aimed at the future rather than anything now. No formal offer was ever made by either side. The Kings coming with Haliburton rendered everything else moot for the Pacers. The Suns not immediately hanging up the phone and tossing it out a high-story window at the prospect of shaking anything up -- even in the offseason -- is notable, though.

There was an interesting *theoretical* road map to a sign-and-trade in the offseason. Sabonis is due $18.5 million next season and $19.4 million in 2023-24. What will Ayton earn this summer as a restricted free agent? The Suns have functioned fine -- in the regular-season, mind you -- with Ayton injured. Sabonis is a more accomplished player than Ayton, but Ayton is a better fit for how the Suns play and what they need on both ends. Phoenix has incredible chemistry, and their two-way efficiency machine is running away with the league's best record.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/33264034/lowe-ridiculous-nba-trade-deadline-which-players-teams-officially-notice

Not wanting to pay the max is understandable given the market for Cs, but you're still probably talking about him being worth a godo $25 million a year and will improve as the cap increases, so the max isn't all that off from that. It will be interesting if he entertains accepting less or if he'd rather play in Detroit or Portland for a bit more (which in case I think we'd match, but to sign an offer sheet he'd have to be ready and willing to make the move onto a rebuilding team for some more money).

Though I guess to ask that question it would be fair to ask if Booker or any player would take less than they think they are worth to stay with a contender or rather get the max or more from another team that isn't as good.

[bwgood77]

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[suns12345]

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Love how he left his arm up on that hook like a shooter would from three - that was nice

[Mulhollanddrive]

If he gets a max offer it works out to be about $128m over 4, keep it simple.

If he didn't play a game like Ben Simmons he would still be worth it to get the next Harden.

[bwgood77]

If he gets a max offer it works out to be about $128m over 4, keep it simple.

If he didn't play a game like Ben Simmons he would still be worth it to get the next Harden.

Is that it? I thought they were talking around $140 in the offseason. I think the cap is now set at $121 million so 25% is a first year salary of $30.25, then if an offer from another team they get 5% max raises, so that's about $1.5 in year two (approx $31.8), and closer to $1.6 (approx $33.4) in year 3 and almost $1.7 in year 4 (approx $35.1).

So yeah, I guess that's pretty close...that's in my head and it's slightly over $130 I think...so about an avg of $32.5.

[Mulhollanddrive]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

[bwgood77]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

[Slim Charless]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

Let him walk. I'd rather him walk than Ayton leave. Easy decision. We don't have to CamJo till next year right? That helps.

[Slim Charless]

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You should redo that poll you had last year asking the board if they had to make a choice who makes the cut Mikal or DA......

[Saberestar]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

Aaron Holiday is not a big deal, he will not make a difference in Ayton's next contract.

[bwgood77]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

Let him walk. I'd rather him walk than Ayton leave. Easy decision. We don't have to CamJo till next year right? That helps.

I think we have to probably shed about $20 to keep Ayton unless Sarver is willing to have an enormous tax bill. Candidates are probably Saric, Craig, Holiday, Shamet and Crowder in that order.

Partially because the first 3 would be easiest to dump other than Crowder but that would be less likely. Shamet would be harder and we just signed him and he is the most overpaid with the most years being overpaid even though his contract his only 2 years guaranteed. So many better guys on rookie deals.

We need him to finish his 3pt shooting strong to have a chance to trade or justify paying him (though just shooting that well does not justify that contract). I wish I knew the rules on stretching a guy with 4 years but the last two not guaranteed. Do you only stretch guaranteed money? He would be on the books for a lot of years but the cap hit would be that much and it wouldn't matter much after cap jump.

Just bad cap management unless play is to trade Ayton for guy making half as much or a guy like Sabonis making 2/3 as much.

Would be nice to get Allen for him if we had to trade him but don't see Cleveland doing that given his play and contract.

I now hope we just get a rich owner willing to eat the tax one or two years and Sarver is ousted after the investigation and regular season like last year.

[bwgood77]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

Aaron Holiday is not a big deal, he will not make a difference in Ayton's next contract.

Well his QO is over $5 million. I didn't think Shamet would be a big deal but he got paid twice as much as I expected. Holiday shouldn't get paid much given the plethora of cheap PGs in the league on rookie contracts and teams having depth but it seems they just paid Shamet without considering his market.

[bwgood77]

The salary cap went up a bit higher than I thought so the RFA max now gets to $130m over 4.

But luxury tax also moves up a bit at $147m. The main worry with maxing Ayton would be luxury tax but if we dump Saric and Shamet we can bring back everyone and only be $10m over.

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

Aaron Holiday is not a big deal, he will not make a difference in Ayton's next contract.

Well his QO is over $5 million. I didn't think Shamet would be a big deal but he got paid twice as much as I expected. Holiday shouldn't get paid much given the plethora of cheap PGs in the league on rookie contracts and teams having depth but it seems they just paid Shamet without considering his market.

[bwgood77]

Best case scenario is Saric/Shamet dumped with heavily protected 1st that turns into 2 seconds at some point...yet likely conveyed if we remain playoff team and Cam extends for about 4/$70 or less.

[Slim Charless]

Best case scenario is Saric/Shamet dumped with heavily protected 1st that turns into 2 seconds at some point...yet likely conveyed if we remain playoff team and Cam extends for about 4/$70 or less.

We don't have to extend Cam till next season though right? So we can have time to free ourselves of Jae's contract and Dario too before we have to pay him I think...

[bwgood77]

Best case scenario is Saric/Shamet dumped with heavily protected 1st that turns into 2 seconds at some point...yet likely conveyed if we remain playoff team and Cam extends for about 4/$70 or less.

We don't have to extend Cam till next season though right? So we can have time to free ourselves of Jae's contract and Dario too before we have to pay him I think...

His contract won't kick in until 23-24. But his salary will basically replace what Saric's and Crowders will be next year. But we can extend this summer, just like we extended Bridges and Shamet last summer but those contracts don't kick in until next year.

[thamadkant]

Suns have their draft picks to use to entice teams to take on Shamet, Saric in the off season....

[Bogyo]

Suns have their draft picks to use to entice teams to take on Shamet, Saric in the off season....

And Saric is also expiring as well as Crowder and Craig, while Payne will only have 2 years on his contract at a good 6 mill value. So in theory we have some wiggle room to rebalance while keeping the 2 most important free agents - DA and Cam.

I'm sure we can get a cheap backup vet 5. Tyson, Biyombo are both possibilities, but there will be plenty more, RoLo will be FA, as well as other players of that type. I'm also pretty sure we can get 1-2 cheap vet-min type ring chasing wings too, or who might miss out as FA's and decide to come here and prove themselves on a contender. So the possibilities will likely be there - the question is how much are we gonna make of it.

[Saberestar]

Partly depends on how much Aaron Holiday gets paid too.

Let him walk. I'd rather him walk than Ayton leave. Easy decision. We don't have to CamJo till next year right? That helps.

I think we have to probably shed about $20 to keep Ayton unless Sarver is willing to have an enormous tax bill. Candidates are probably Saric, Craig, Holiday, Shamet and Crowder in that order.

Partially because the first 3 would be easiest to dump other than Crowder but that would be less likely. Shamet would be harder and we just signed him and he is the most overpaid with the most years being overpaid even though his contract his only 2 years guaranteed. So many better guys on rookie deals.

We need him to finish his 3pt shooting strong to have a chance to trade or justify paying him (though just shooting that well does not justify that contract). I wish I knew the rules on stretching a guy with 4 years but the last two not guaranteed. Do you only stretch guaranteed money? He would be on the books for a lot of years but the cap hit would be that much and it wouldn't matter much after cap jump.

Just bad cap management unless play is to trade Ayton for guy making half as much or a guy like Sabonis making 2/3 as much.

Would be nice to get Allen for him if we had to trade him but don't see Cleveland doing that given his play and contract.

I now hope we just get a rich owner willing to eat the tax one or two years and Sarver is ousted after the investigation and regular season like last year.

If you analyze the last few moves from James Jones/Sarver you will be more confident about Sarver paying a luxury tax next year.

We didn't pick up Jalen Smith's option because we didn't believe in him as a contributor for a contender, not because we wanted to cut salaries for next year. It's now pretty clear after trading him for a player that is a backup signed for next season.

We waived Nader AND got Aaron Holiday absorbing his salary and gave money to the Wizards. This move wasn't needed and costs Sarver easily over $2M.

And we have talked plenty of times about Ayton extension...not a big deal at all. He is restricted and happy, he will get his money this offseason.