The Phoenix Suns chose to keep Deandre Ayton this summer, although that may have been more about the lack of an appealing offer rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option.
Trading Ayton before next summer would come with a lot of advantages, as the Suns cemented themselves as a second-apron team by trading for Bradley Beal.
As of now, Phoenix can still trade Ayton and take 110 percent of his salary back in return from one or a combination of players. Next summer, that will go down to 100 percent, and the Suns will be unable to include cash or aggregate contracts in trades.
We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent.
Ayton's raw stats will suffer, and he'll eventually be traded for parts, with a rim-protecting center, wing defender and pass-first point guard all ranking at the top of Phoenix's wish list.
"Too little, too late, too unbothered."
- Phoenix Suns 2023-2024 season motto.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
I always thought Booker had better chemistry with Ayton.
CP3 was a great player so it was always going to be good, but he and Ayton with never a natural fit like Nash and Amare.
I think we got what we needed from CP3. He was a great teacher to Book and Ayton, but his time is waning. I actually thought we should’ve traded him before last season.
I expect Ayton to do better this year playing off the other 3. Hopefully Vogel will have a different defensive approach that will let him take more chances and go after some blocks. I always thought he was instructed to contest, but never try to block so he wouldn’t pick up fouls.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
Yeah, didn’t say I agreed with any of it. Pretty much the worst case take. I hope reality is somewhere in the middle at the least. As far as we know, both James Jones and Vogel have a lot of faith in him.
"Too little, too late, too unbothered."
- Phoenix Suns 2023-2024 season motto.
I always thought Booker had better chemistry with Ayton.
CP3 was a great player so it was always going to be good, but he and Ayton with never a natural fit like Nash and Amare.
I think we got what we needed from CP3. He was a great teacher to Book and Ayton, but his time is waning. I actually thought we should’ve traded him before last season.
I expect Ayton to do better this year playing off the other 3. Hopefully Vogel will have a different defensive approach that will let him take more chances and go after some blocks. I always thought he was instructed to contest, but never try to block so he wouldn’t pick up fouls.
I just hope we can finally solve the Ayton going to help and the opponent ending up with a dunk at the rim issue.
"Too little, too late, too unbothered."
- Phoenix Suns 2023-2024 season motto.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
We all saw the best version of Ayton in the 2021 playoffs on a championship team. Your best version of Ayton doesn’t exist, unless it’s just looking at the box scores on a dead last team.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
We all saw the best version of Ayton in the 2021 playoffs on a championship team. Your best version of Ayton doesn’t exist, unless it’s just looking at the box scores on a dead last team.
I'm not sure I'm following this. If 2021 playoff Ayton shows up most nights, I'm totally fine with that Ayton as a Sun and on a max contract.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
We all saw the best version of Ayton in the 2021 playoffs on a championship team. Your best version of Ayton doesn’t exist, unless it’s just looking at the box scores on a dead last team.
I'm not sure I'm following this. If 2021 playoff Ayton shows up most nights, I'm totally fine with that Ayton as a Sun and on a max contract.
I feel the same as you do. I just don’t understand the need to nitpick Ayton’s touches or usage. He is responsible for getting the ball and being in position. We’ve seen the best version of Ayton and loved it- and he wasn’t ever a 2nd option in the offense.
Defend and rebound like a madman, score on putbacks, in an ideal world he would be an 18-18 guy or something ridiculous like this. More like a Bill Russell than anything else. The Suns don't have any other rebounders.
But this is an admittedly far fetched scenario. But Ayton as a 15-15 DPOY candidate this year is quite possible IMHO.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
We all saw the best version of Ayton in the 2021 playoffs on a championship team. Your best version of Ayton doesn’t exist, unless it’s just looking at the box scores on a dead last team.
I’m confused. What exactly are you disagreeing with that I said?
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
"We aren't likely to see the best version of Ayton playing alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal, especially without Chris Paul. Ayton received 30.1 percent of his total passes from Paul last season, with Booker finishing a distant second at 12.6 percent."
That's the stupidest logic ever. So 70% of the time CP3 was not responsible for getting him the ball even when he was on the team? And his absence is supposed to "doom" him how exactly?
"...rather than their belief in him becoming a strong fourth option..."
Yeah because I guess he was only a strong fifth option previously. Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
We all saw the best version of Ayton in the 2021 playoffs on a championship team. Your best version of Ayton doesn’t exist, unless it’s just looking at the box scores on a dead last team.
I’m confused. What exactly are you disagreeing with that I said?
Perhaps i just misread you. I disagree with the discourse overall with where he should be as an option. It doesn’t matter who is feeding him. That is unless he develops a go to shot, which that ship may have sailed. His max value comes from the summation of what he does and how his play makes the team better when he sucks in the defense, rebounds, and scores off the glass or on quick hits.
"When we all think alike, nobody is thinking" - Walter Lippmann "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." ~ Frederick Douglass
Donnie Druin of Sports Illustrated believes the Mavericks should revive trade talks with Phoenix Suns former number-one overall pick Deandre Ayton.
Yup. That’s it. The headline suggests that the Mavs are in trade talks, but the fact is this is just some proposal by a writer. It isn’t a “report” about the Mavs being “linked.”
A pet peeve of mine and has been for a long time. Sites long ago figured out that “Somebody, somewhere, suggested something” doesn’t generate clicks the way “We heard a rumor about what’s going down” does, and the industry developed a standard practice of putting “rumor” headlines on “suggestion” articles.
What really depresses me is the way language evolves in the context of this kind of thing. A whole generation of people grows up reading these “rumors,” and, not realizing that these professional news sites are deliberately torturing the English language, think this is just another definition of the word rumor. Pretty soon we have conversations like:
A: I thought of a trade rumor. X for Y. What do you think?
B: Ooh, good idea! I like that rumor.
Then B goes on social media and posts about this “rumor” he heard, and if it’s well received, there’s a rumor going around that the teams are involved in X-for-Y talks. And this happens without anyone being willfully dishonest; it’s just a matter of people growing up amongst widespread misleading behavior mimicking that behavior without recognizing it as dishonest.
On the other hand, maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about. Don’t worry about it.
I understand your feelings on this. I was just posting this as Suns content, and giving my opinion on a proposed fantasy trade. If it was Lively instead of McGee, I might bite, if I was Jones.
"When we all think alike, nobody is thinking" - Walter Lippmann "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." ~ Frederick Douglass
Never mind that he was 2nd or 3rd in scoring every year since his rookie season.
