JeremyG wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:21 pm
Aztec Sunsfan wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:23 pm
LazarusLong wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:25 am
Perhaps seeing both of his backups (McGee and Kaminsky) turning in numerous peak performances made him realize he's not indispensable.
Effort defeats talent, when the talent lacks effort.
Ayton is watching his backups overplaying him, and has matured to understand that effort matters to get the BEST results. He was getting good numbers on mediocre effort, but hopefully we are starting to see what great numbers he can deliver on quality effort.
And, I’m sorry Jeremy G, but is most likely this awakening came from being snubbed on his extension, learning the hard side of professional playing, like Colangelo said. Rewarding mediocre effort with a max contract, sends the message that you are doing enough.
If you've only seen "mediocre effort" from him in the past, then I don't know what to say. That's just ridiculous.
I also can't think of a single game that his backups outplayed him while he was injured, other than as far as scoring by Frank in that one game. There's no way the winning streak would have continued if Ayton had remained out. Sometimes we were barely getting by without him. Frank and Javale certainly weren't outplaying him.
Well, I did see an overall mediocre effort, but don’t worry, you don’t have to say anything. Ridiculous would be to see it the other way around, Ayton as a guy who gives maximum effort all the time.
But to starters, I didn’t say I ONLY saw mediocre effort from him, the guy is fully capable to deliver wonderful stretches of Dominayton. But my problem (and I’m not alone) is precisely that he played at that level just for stretches. Three full years of irregular effort during the regular season. Oh wait, he got himself suspended for 25 games, so add that up to the equation.
Lack of conditioning, mental lapses, teammates ignoring him (hard to believe if you think the goal is winning), or plain and simple lack of effort for the full 48 minutes. All of the above except the third one, it’s on him. But for third factor, you can easily see the difference this year on how deeper he gains position, how different he runs his lanes, the improvement on the roll, and specially on his hands, he is no longer a turnover waiting to happen after catching the ball in traffic. So, his teammates were ignoring him, or just watching a guy out of position, and/or lacking the hands needed to complete the play? Lacking auto critic cripples improvement.
You can argue that we were receiving this Ayton no matter the contract, I think we are looking a hungry Ayton taking on him the charge of earning his next contract, instead of pouting for the lack of extension (great to see this mature response)
As I said, if the team had rewarded him with the full max extension, the message is “well done, there you have the fruits of your effort”, and even if you want to signal all the averages and milestones reached by him, I have to point out, that we were lucky to get a player capable of averaging close to 20 and 10 dragging his feet for long stretches on any given game.
Imagine the possibilities of a fully engaged Ayton all game long this past three years!!! So, the REALLY GOOD numbers were there to max him out, granted, but sometimes the only way to push someone toward GREATNESS, is to denying him the easy way to get things done. “You can do better” is something we always have to take players to buy in, but it was specially true for Ayton, and we have witnessed during the playoffs and this early new season that he truly had on him the possibility to be even better that he was.
Team could have maxed “really good Ayton” and keep getting that level and consistency of effort, or choose to push him to deliver them “Great Ayton”. I’m glad they took the road less traveled instead of caving on fear to hurt some feelings.
Now, if you were completely happy with the previous “regular season Ayton” and not enjoying this new level of effort he is sustaining day in and day out, then it’s me the one out of words for you.
You were afraid Ayton would put on a number because of the snub, he didn’t. You were afraid the team would be distracted for his situation, they are not. And if everything stays the same, he is getting his max contract next offseason, most likely from us, all of it while the team is receiving an even better Ayton than last year’s playoffs, so I’m not sure what your point is anymore. Let’s enjoy the ride.