All Things Ayton

[Superbone]

Capitalization and spelling are two different things, my friend.

However you want to color it, you got it wrong, buddy.

[INFORMER]

Ha.

[JeremyG]

It still think there’s a good chance he is gone. I’m fine either way just don’t want a dickhead deal. Has anyone heard anything from Ayton? KD and Book were in the bahamas but No social media pics?

He was not in the Bahamas when they were. And no, there's not a good chance he is gone.

As for his side of things, he's happy in Phoenix, he wants to stay in Phoenix, he's never wanted to leave Phoenix.



And if DA wanted to leave Phoenix last year, he would have come out and publicly asked the Suns to not match the offer sheet (a la Joe Johnson and Eric Gordon). It's that simple. But both James Jones and Deandre wanted him to remain a Sun. Take a look at what Jones said last year, with some more context a year later:

Phoenix general manager James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately.

"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would. So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.

"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/342 ... ital-piece

It's not difficult to read between the lines there that it was Robert Sarver that wanted to force Ayton to go out and get an offer sheet to save some money (was probably hoping for even more savings than he got, if nobody had offered a max). He did it before with Eric Bledsoe.

If it was up to Jones, he probably would have just signed him on July 1. But instead, he let him know what Sarver's plan was (waiting for an offer sheet and then matching it).

Monty Williams' comments are also very interesting a year later, knowing now that he wanted to sign-and-trade DA for Turner, according to Gambo's reporting:

"James and myself, we talk a lot and he'll let me know what's going on with the contract and ask for my opinion," Williams said to ESPN's Andscape. "I try to stay out of persuading him when it comes to him making decisions. But we knew any offer that he got, we were going to match.

In other words, "I wanted to trade him for Turner or somebody, but James let me know that he was going to match any offer sheet and retain DA. And I wasn't going to try to get in his way as the GM."

Monty has always been anti-DA and Jones has always been pro-DA. Sarver only cared about his pocketbook and things soured between him and DA after they had dinner together in summer 2021 and Sarver wouldn't give him an extension.

Even with the owner being neutral at best and the coach wanting him gone, Jones still insisted on keeping DA. That speaks volumes about what Jones thinks of Ayton.

And now we have a coach who is "pushing hard" to keep him and an owner who we've heard "likes his game."

He is not getting traded.

[INFORMER]

Please shut us up, Deandre.

[JNix]

The reason they didnt extend him is because they didnt want to give him the 5th year. By matching it became a 4 year deal.

You can also only have 2 rookie max extends on the roster. By not doing that with Ayton it gave us flexibility to trade for a rookie max extension player.

[Drewsprocket]

It still think there’s a good chance he is gone. I’m fine either way just don’t want a dickhead deal. Has anyone heard anything from Ayton? KD and Book were in the bahamas but No social media pics?

He was not in the Bahamas when they were. And no, there's not a good chance he is gone.

As for his side of things, he's happy in Phoenix, he wants to stay in Phoenix, he's never wanted to leave Phoenix.



And if DA wanted to leave Phoenix last year, he would have come out and publicly asked the Suns to not match the offer sheet (a la Joe Johnson and Eric Gordon). It's that simple. But both James Jones and Deandre wanted him to remain a Sun. Take a look at what Jones said last year, with some more context a year later:

Phoenix general manager James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately.

"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would. So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.

"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/342 ... ital-piece

It's not difficult to read between the lines there that it was Robert Sarver that wanted to force Ayton to go out and get an offer sheet to save some money (was probably hoping for even more savings than he got, if nobody had offered a max). He did it before with Eric Bledsoe.

If it was up to Jones, he probably would have just signed him on July 1. But instead, he let him know what Sarver's plan was (waiting for an offer sheet and then matching it).

Monty Williams' comments are also very interesting a year later, knowing now that he wanted to sign-and-trade DA for Turner, according to Gambo's reporting:

"James and myself, we talk a lot and he'll let me know what's going on with the contract and ask for my opinion," Williams said to ESPN's Andscape. "I try to stay out of persuading him when it comes to him making decisions. But we knew any offer that he got, we were going to match.

In other words, "I wanted to trade him for Turner or somebody, but James let me know that he was going to match any offer sheet and retain DA. And I wasn't going to try to get in his way as the GM."

Monty has always been anti-DA and Jones has always been pro-DA. Sarver only cared about his pocketbook and things soured between him and DA after they had dinner together in summer 2021 and Sarver wouldn't give him an extension.

Even with the owner being neutral at best and the coach wanting him gone, Jones still insisted on keeping DA. That speaks volumes about what Jones thinks of Ayton.

And now we have a coach who is "pushing hard" to keep him and an owner who we've heard "likes his game."

He is not getting traded.

[Split T]

The reason they didnt extend him is because they didnt want to give him the 5th year. By matching it became a 4 year deal.

You can also only have 2 rookie max extends on the roster. By not doing that with Ayton it gave us flexibility to trade for a rookie max extension player.

They did change that rule with the new cba. It was definitely relevant at the time though.

[JeremyG]

It still think there’s a good chance he is gone. I’m fine either way just don’t want a dickhead deal. Has anyone heard anything from Ayton? KD and Book were in the bahamas but No social media pics?

He was not in the Bahamas when they were. And no, there's not a good chance he is gone.

As for his side of things, he's happy in Phoenix, he wants to stay in Phoenix, he's never wanted to leave Phoenix.



And if DA wanted to leave Phoenix last year, he would have come out and publicly asked the Suns to not match the offer sheet (a la Joe Johnson and Eric Gordon). It's that simple. But both James Jones and Deandre wanted him to remain a Sun. Take a look at what Jones said last year, with some more context a year later:

Phoenix general manager James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately.

"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would. So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.

"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/342 ... ital-piece

It's not difficult to read between the lines there that it was Robert Sarver that wanted to force Ayton to go out and get an offer sheet to save some money (was probably hoping for even more savings than he got, if nobody had offered a max). He did it before with Eric Bledsoe.

If it was up to Jones, he probably would have just signed him on July 1. But instead, he let him know what Sarver's plan was (waiting for an offer sheet and then matching it).

Monty Williams' comments are also very interesting a year later, knowing now that he wanted to sign-and-trade DA for Turner, according to Gambo's reporting:

"James and myself, we talk a lot and he'll let me know what's going on with the contract and ask for my opinion," Williams said to ESPN's Andscape. "I try to stay out of persuading him when it comes to him making decisions. But we knew any offer that he got, we were going to match.

In other words, "I wanted to trade him for Turner or somebody, but James let me know that he was going to match any offer sheet and retain DA. And I wasn't going to try to get in his way as the GM."

Monty has always been anti-DA and Jones has always been pro-DA. Sarver only cared about his pocketbook and things soured between him and DA after they had dinner together in summer 2021 and Sarver wouldn't give him an extension.

Even with the owner being neutral at best and the coach wanting him gone, Jones still insisted on keeping DA. That speaks volumes about what Jones thinks of Ayton.

And now we have a coach who is "pushing hard" to keep him and an owner who we've heard "likes his game."

He is not getting traded.

Lol, it's not mental gymnastics. It's called properly interpreting the facts. Which the media and fanbase have both done an atrocious job of, in general.

[Superbone]

Please shut us up, Deandre.

[Drewsprocket]

It still think there’s a good chance he is gone. I’m fine either way just don’t want a dickhead deal. Has anyone heard anything from Ayton? KD and Book were in the bahamas but No social media pics?

He was not in the Bahamas when they were. And no, there's not a good chance he is gone.

As for his side of things, he's happy in Phoenix, he wants to stay in Phoenix, he's never wanted to leave Phoenix.



And if DA wanted to leave Phoenix last year, he would have come out and publicly asked the Suns to not match the offer sheet (a la Joe Johnson and Eric Gordon). It's that simple. But both James Jones and Deandre wanted him to remain a Sun. Take a look at what Jones said last year, with some more context a year later:

Phoenix general manager James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately.

"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would. So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.

"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/342 ... ital-piece

It's not difficult to read between the lines there that it was Robert Sarver that wanted to force Ayton to go out and get an offer sheet to save some money (was probably hoping for even more savings than he got, if nobody had offered a max). He did it before with Eric Bledsoe.

If it was up to Jones, he probably would have just signed him on July 1. But instead, he let him know what Sarver's plan was (waiting for an offer sheet and then matching it).

Monty Williams' comments are also very interesting a year later, knowing now that he wanted to sign-and-trade DA for Turner, according to Gambo's reporting:

"James and myself, we talk a lot and he'll let me know what's going on with the contract and ask for my opinion," Williams said to ESPN's Andscape. "I try to stay out of persuading him when it comes to him making decisions. But we knew any offer that he got, we were going to match.

In other words, "I wanted to trade him for Turner or somebody, but James let me know that he was going to match any offer sheet and retain DA. And I wasn't going to try to get in his way as the GM."

Monty has always been anti-DA and Jones has always been pro-DA. Sarver only cared about his pocketbook and things soured between him and DA after they had dinner together in summer 2021 and Sarver wouldn't give him an extension.

Even with the owner being neutral at best and the coach wanting him gone, Jones still insisted on keeping DA. That speaks volumes about what Jones thinks of Ayton.

And now we have a coach who is "pushing hard" to keep him and an owner who we've heard "likes his game."

He is not getting traded.

Lol, it's not mental gymnastics. It's called properly interpreting the facts. Which the media and fanbase have both done an atrocious job of, in general.

I mean it’s all mental gymnastics to some extent. I see your points however I think you have to leave room for 30-50% of what we read having more to do with controlling the narrative. I believe if was a good offer he’d be gone.
But I just want 2021 playoffs Ayton back if we’re keeping him.

[Superbone]

How do you know he wasn't in the Bahamas? Where was he? I thought that was a new clip but that was his exit interview. I'd like to hear what he thinks now. I'd hope he'd be a little more excited.

[ShelC]

Another way to interpret facts is that the Suns didn't think Deandre was worth more than what anyone else was willing to give him and it was his agent (also Myles Turner's agent) who called in a favor with the Pacers to sign him to a max offer sheet knowing the Suns would match it. That's what both sides were looking for. More facts are that the Suns didn't play any games with Book, they gave him his rookie max as soon as he was eligible. The Hawks didn't let Trae Young his restricted free agency, the Mavs didn't let Luka hit RFA, the TWolves didn't let Ant Edwards hit RFA. They gave them their full max deals that Deandre thought he was entitled to. Had we drafted Luka in 2018, would Sarver have let him hit RFA and tell him to find a team to give him an offer sheet?

I certainly wouldn't expect the President/GM to come out and say, "we don't really think DA's worth this much but we're better off keeping him." And Jones has played with truly great players in LBJ, Bosh, Nash, Reggie, etc. He sees CP, Book, KD now. He knows DA isn't built like those guys.

[Flagrant Fowl]

That post should be stickied at the top of every page of this thread.

[INFORMER]

More facts are that the Suns didn't play any games with Book, they gave him his rookie max as soon as he was eligible. The Hawks didn't let Trae Young his restricted free agency, the Mavs didn't let Luka hit RFA, the TWolves didn't let Ant Edwards hit RFA. They gave them their full max deals that Deandre thought he was entitled to. Had we drafted Luka in 2018, would Sarver have let him hit RFA and tell him to find a team to give him an offer sheet?

THIS.

[TOO]

Please shut us up, Deandre.

Gonna space it out, make some more space, so we can play in space, have you been to space?

[JeremyG]

How do you know he wasn't in the Bahamas? Where was he? I thought that was a new clip but that was his exit interview. I'd like to hear what he thinks now. I'd hope he'd be a little more excited.

He was in Phoenix at that smash room thing. It was posted here.

[JeremyG]

Another way to interpret facts is that the Suns didn't think Deandre was worth more than what anyone else was willing to give him and it was his agent (also Myles Turner's agent) who called in a favor with the Pacers to sign him to a max offer sheet knowing the Suns would match it. That's what both sides were looking for. More facts are that the Suns didn't play any games with Book, they gave him his rookie max as soon as he was eligible. The Hawks didn't let Trae Young his restricted free agency, the Mavs didn't let Luka hit RFA, the TWolves didn't let Ant Edwards hit RFA. They gave them their full max deals that Deandre thought he was entitled to. Had we drafted Luka in 2018, would Sarver have let him hit RFA and tell him to find a team to give him an offer sheet?

I certainly wouldn't expect the President/GM to come out and say, "we don't really think DA's worth this much but we're better off keeping him." And Jones has played with truly great players in LBJ, Bosh, Nash, Reggie, etc. He sees CP, Book, KD now. He knows DA isn't built like those guys.

Now explain why Jones didn't get off of him for Myles Turner when the coach wanted him to?

[ShelC]

Jones may well have thought/still think DA is better than Turner (or at least his potential). Just like he may not love DA and his contract but won't take back Capela and change from the Hawks because he doesn't think it necessarily makes us better. He's still obligated to do what he thinks is best for the org. If he "loved" DA like that, he would've gone to bat for him and pushed to give him the $150-200mil extension a year early.

[Mori Chu]

How do you know he wasn't in the Bahamas? Where was he? I thought that was a new clip but that was his exit interview. I'd like to hear what he thinks now. I'd hope he'd be a little more excited.

He was in Phoenix at that smash room thing. It was posted here.

It was a normal room. Move on, find a new slant!

[Superbone]

How do you know he wasn't in the Bahamas? Where was he? I thought that was a new clip but that was his exit interview. I'd like to hear what he thinks now. I'd hope he'd be a little more excited.

He was in Phoenix at that smash room thing. It was posted here.

Ah, right. And the jokes ensued.