DeAndre Ayton is gone

[Fo-Real]

[https://youtu.be/LhI88tg1Gqg]






That settles it pxh, max Ayton and ride him like a work horse!!

[Bornstellar]

I have a feeling he will end up with SA. Not sure I like that

[bwgood77]

I want to congratulate Warriors fans. They were right, Suns fans were wrong, as has been the case during the Warriors dynasty.

The Warriors are built to last - the Suns aren't.

They worked it pretty well, with KD set to leave they pried DLo away to keep that salary slot, and of course the year after losing KD, they also didn't have Klay, Curry was out with a hand injury, and Green basically took a rest year, playing sparingly, and they end up with the worst record and a top pick, and then the following year with Klay still out, they trade DLo for Wiggins and a first, get two fairly high picks that summer with their own as they get back to fringe playoff, and then get healthy, Wiggins gets more integrated, Klay comes back, Poole emerges, and they sign nice cheap depth pieces like getting Otto Porter on a minimum for free as opposed tto trading a first for Shamet and paying him $10 million a year which makes it tough to keep Ayton.

[bwgood77]

A) you're not wrong...but Ayton isn't an automaton. I do believe some players focus on both money/winning when they're youngish should they be desired by a winning team. Guys are happier in winning environments whilst playing professional bball IMO, which leads to just more enjoyment, but also productivity/potentially. I mean you learn winning habits from being in winning environments as well, perhaps.

The guy literally spelled out where his priorities were at when he was drafted. In his own words he stated the most important thing to him was the second contract. He said what he said.

All NBA players are looking to get paid on their second contract.

Their earning window is limited and they have to protect against serious injury which could cut their careers.

The earning window for a center is probably even shorter these days.

If you forced players to choose between making $30-35 million vs. $20-25 million but the lower salary guarantees them a ring, 95% of them would go for the greater salary.

That's assuming they haven't made 9-figures in earnings already, that is it's their first chance at a big payday after their rookie deals.

But even at a lower salary, there would be no guarantees of winning titles. If the Suns are able to save $10-15 million a year in Ayton's salary, would that money enable them to add key players to help them win the title?

Or would the owner pocket most of the savings?

They won't gain any cap space. They are working over the cap, not even counting Ayton. Whatever they get in trade is all they will have to work with, outside of the Tax MLE.

[bwgood77]

Ayton is right to leave and go somewhere else. This is simply considered malpractice.

Read on Twitter

Remember Ayton went to Monty and addressed these concerns with him earlier too.

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I do not understand the "He is nothing without CP3" narrative when the guy balled out without CP3 this season

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Ayton should have texted him a few times during the series..

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[bwgood77]

I do not understand the "He is nothing without CP3" narrative when the guy balled out without CP3 this season

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Yeah, that argument means nothing. He got more looks and scored more with Rubio. His efficiency has improved but it's not because of Paul, because he takes a much larger % of his shots away from the rim now, over 2/3 of them, but has just mastered that hook shot, getting his % on that shot up to like 67%.

All anyone has to do is throw him the ball high and he can catch and make the move. Bridges and others do it a bit.

[bwgood77]

Spoiler:

Ayton is right to leave and go somewhere else. This is simply considered malpractice.

Read on Twitter

Remember Ayton went to Monty and addressed these concerns with him earlier too.

Read on Twitter

I do not understand the "He is nothing without CP3" narrative when the guy balled out without CP3 this season

Read on Twitter

Amazing how anyone can sit there trying to extrapolate a 16 game sample size vs CP3's 135 regular season games and 33 playoff games.

He got a lot more shot attempts per game with Rubio too. 15 a game with Rubio as opposed to 10 and 12 the last two years. Heck, he even got more shots per game a rookie with the Elie Okobo/Isaiah Canaan/De'Anthony Melton trio alternating at PG.

[bwgood77]

Yeah I agree he needs to get to the line. Although I feel like at times he doesn't get calls since he doesn't flop IMO.

Still though, Ayton has a great ceiling and has only been getting better every year on both ends. It's going to be tough for Phoenix to find a replacement for him. Remember all the praise he got in the first round..? I think people only remember his lackluster game 7. And only very few people have given him credit for being the only player that showed up in game 6.

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Even last year he had a great playoff run neutralizing Jokic, AD, destroying Clippers small ball.. etc. His impact on the game is tremendous. It's going to be tough for Phoenix to find a replacement as good as him.

Let's dig a little deeper here though:

- vs. the Pelicans while he took advantage of a team who had nobody who could guard him he still gave up 14pts/14rebs (5 ORB) per game vs. JV

Guys with Ayton's talents are definitely not proliferated throughout the NBA, especially since it's not a center dominant league anymore. But to take the conversation further I've yet to see him truly dominate his competition, particularly lesser players such as JV and Zubac, which is a symptom of his inconsistency.

Making JV try to get points on Ayton worked great though. He held him to 48% shooting, so they more he shot it, the more the Pels got in a hole. Most of his offensive boards were on his own misses though after Ayton contested....sometimes 2 per possession...Ayton just had his back tot he basket.

I'm not sure how averaging 20 on JV shooting over 71% while limiting him to 14 on 48% shooting isn't dominating him.

He played great against AD and Jokic in last year's playoffs. Giannis was a different story, but no one can really stop him.

[enigmatics]

Making JV try to get points on Ayton worked great though. He held him to 48% shooting, so they more he shot it, the more the Pels got in a hole. Most of his offensive boards were on his own misses though after Ayton contested....sometimes 2 per possession...Ayton just had his back tot he basket.

I'm not sure how averaging 20 on JV shooting over 71% while limiting him to 14 on 48% shooting isn't dominating him.

He played great against AD and Jokic in last year's playoffs. Giannis was a different story, but no one can really stop him.

Because he didn't dominate JV in all facets of the game. Offensively he was efficient as hell, but JV absolutely killed him on the offensive glass and missed an INSANE amount of bunnies at the rim. That's on JV, not anything DA was doing. That statistics and series could've been completed different if it weren't for that.

AD was coming off injury and still had some of it lingering. He played great against Jokic but for as much as he did offensively - he gave it up on the end of the floor not to mention Jokic's squad wasn't full tilt and he was taking on a lot more load than even he was accustomed to. Still net, net I would never expect him to dominate Jokic.

Again my comments aren't to take away from some of DA's performances - but he's a guy who tends to neutralize his own effectiveness with inconsistencies that we've talked about repeatedly. I noticed you didn't comment on Zubac's stats from the Clippers series - it's the perfect example of how he sometimes performs vs. much lesser competition and that was in the playoffs when it most mattered. Zubac was a big reason that series got tighter after they saw they couldn't compete with small ball after Game 1. They literally doubled his minutes for each game the rest of the series.

[ShootersShoot]

Making JV try to get points on Ayton worked great though. He held him to 48% shooting, so they more he shot it, the more the Pels got in a hole. Most of his offensive boards were on his own misses though after Ayton contested....sometimes 2 per possession...Ayton just had his back tot he basket.

I'm not sure how averaging 20 on JV shooting over 71% while limiting him to 14 on 48% shooting isn't dominating him.

He played great against AD and Jokic in last year's playoffs. Giannis was a different story, but no one can really stop him.

Because he didn't dominate JV in all facets of the game. Offensively he was efficient as hell, but JV absolutely killed him on the offensive glass and missed an INSANE amount of bunnies at the rim. That's on JV, not anything DA was doing. That statistics and series could've been completed different if it weren't for that.

AD was coming off injury and still had some of it lingering. He played great against Jokic but for as much as he did offensively - he gave it up on the end of the floor not to mention Jokic's squad wasn't full tilt and he was taking on a lot more load than even he was accustomed to. Still net, net I would never expect him to dominate Jokic.

Again my comments aren't to take away from some of DA's performances - but he's a guy who tends to neutralize his own effectiveness with inconsistencies that we've talked about repeatedly. I noticed you didn't comment on Zubac's stats from the Clippers series - it's the perfect example of how he sometimes performs vs. much lesser competition and that was in the playoffs when it most mattered. Zubac was a big reason that series got tighter after they saw they couldn't compete with small ball after Game 1. They literally doubled his minutes for each game the rest of the series.

Zubac averaged 14ppg in games 2-4 in 35.5mpg...hardly world beating stats

[enigmatics]

Zubac averaged 14ppg in games 2-4 in 35.5mpg...hardly world beating stats

You're doing the thing where you're misrepresenting his numbers. He played only 18 mins in game one. He averaged a mid-teens double double in pts/rebounds, 61% shooting, and roughly 35mins throughout the rest of the series. I posted his number in a previous response.

[dakomish23]

I think we see Ayton for Gobert + 2x first

Jazz retool and get younger, can keep Mitchell happy
Suns go all in for short term title + get assets to retool once Paul retires

Great trade for both teams even though I’d rather keep Ayton if I was PHX

[pj0tr]

I want to congratulate Warriors fans. They were right, Suns fans were wrong, as has been the case during the Warriors dynasty.

The Warriors are built to last - the Suns aren't.

They worked it pretty well, with KD set to leave they pried DLo away to keep that salary slot, and of course the year after losing KD, they also didn't have Klay, Curry was out with a hand injury, and Green basically took a rest year, playing sparingly, and they end up with the worst record and a top pick, and then the following year with Klay still out, they trade DLo for Wiggins and a first, get two fairly high picks that summer with their own as they get back to fringe playoff, and then get healthy, Wiggins gets more integrated, Klay comes back, Poole emerges, and they sign nice cheap depth pieces like getting Otto Porter on a minimum for free as opposed tto trading a first for Shamet and paying him $10 million a year which makes it tough to keep Ayton.

Bob Myers is a cocky SOB, but you can't say anything about him as a GM. He knows hes good, and he talks like it - and the team backs him up.

Its the utter worst combination.

[God Squad]

I have a feeling he will end up with SA. Not sure I like that

Why exactly? I do recall "Admiral" was one of his reoccurring comps.

[Riot Randolph]

Lakers or Knicks bound according to US media.

Everyone is lakers or Knicks bound. He would help Knicks. Lakers. Meh.

If we trade Lebron to Phoenix for Ayton + Bridges...

and if we trade AD to Portland for Anfernee Simons + #7 pick + Keon Johnson + filler...

I'd be quite happy with that as a starting point to build our next team. Once we have Westbrick off the books, we'll be well placed to add another star. Mock drafts have Keegan Murray going at #6, so maybe Dyson Daniels with the #7?

Simons
Reaves + Keon
Bridges
Daniels
Ayton

[BeatDaCavs420]

BULLS!!!!!

[ShootersShoot]

Zubac averaged 14ppg in games 2-4 in 35.5mpg...hardly world beating stats

You're doing the thing where you're misrepresenting his numbers. He played only 18 mins in game one. He averaged a mid-teens double double in pts/rebounds, 61% shooting, and roughly 35mins throughout the rest of the series. I posted his number in a previous response.

Did I mention game 1 in my post? I very clearly wrote games 2-4...

14ppg and 11rpg in 35mpg is average ish for a starting center. DA let a center put up average stats against him and thats suppossed to be an indictment on him now?

[Ballerhogger]

The suns failed miserable to use him . No way crowder should have more touches than him .