All Things Ayton

[Kryptonic]

That's what happens when you psychologically destroy, misuse, and then give up on the guy you take.

I wish my employer would psychologically destroy me to the tune of $130M. I’d even let them limit my role and expect effort from me.

Ask me to do something, don't give it 100%, give me a massive unwarranted raise? Sign me up lol.

Right?!!? The guy has generational wealth already why does he need to work harder.

[Mori Chu]

That's what happens when you psychologically destroy, misuse, and then give up on the guy you take.

This is a real stretch, JG. Ultimately the guy got a max contract, a starting job, and 30 minutes a night on a contending team. That's plenty of opportunity. He needs to show personal responsibility and deliver when given an opportunity like that. And if he sometimes took criticism for mistakes, he should be willing and able to take the critical feedback and work to get better, not curl up into the fetal position and cry about it.

[ShadowHawke]

There is a subset of NBA players whose playing performance always increases during a contract year. Too bad they can't always be signed to single year contracts, because another team will take the risk and offer more.

[Shabazz]

I mean, they even sold me into “understanding” their wrong choice. But WTF?

Shout out to all of you maniacs who still cared enough during those years. Think of it this way, the Suns are at least as good right now as they would’ve been with Luka.

I'm not sure what Gambo's agenda was here. Also, they had years of tape on Luka but were expecting a 10 minute facetime call to swing their opinion?

[Superbone]

Let's face it. Sarver and McDonough failed to do a thorough job of vetting their choice. They just looked at the physical side and skipped the mental side. They had their minds made up early.

[ShelC]

Let's face it. Sarver and McDonough failed to do a thorough job of vetting their choice. They just looked at the physical side and skipped the mental side. They had their minds made up early.

Yea I think that sums it up. I also think Sarver saw a local UA pick and the marketing opportunities that came with it because business over basketball.

[Superbone]

A fan on another forum posted this which I think sums up my thoughts about Ayton's Suns tenure and departure quite well:

It will be interesting to watch games where I no longer complain about effort. Will there be games where somewhat limited players don’t excel? Sure. But I don’t expect to question their effort or motivation. What a relief that will be.

To be totally transparent, I’m a little crestfallen that today marks a day where we have to admit that our only #1 pick in Suns history, and the seeming best Suns center, failed to ever live up to our expectations as a Sun. That’s locked in now. Can’t even hang onto potential. And that is sad.

What I’m not sad about is not having to root for a big goofy man-child that deep down I believe just won’t ever be what he could be. I won’t have to worry about his #1 priority being his next contract. I won’t have to hear the statements made evidence a complete lack of self-awareness. I won’t have to watch him fumble passes. I won’t have to watch him get pushed outta post position by point guards. I won’t have to see him get pushed outta bounds on box outs without effort from him. I won’t have to wish he could draw fouls.

I truly wish him well. Seems like a nice enough guy. But man am I glad that I don’t have to root for him anymore. And I was so stoked when we drafted him. But I don’t. I won’t miss it at all. In fact i feel a kind of lightness with his departure. I’ve never said that about any player on any team for which I’m a fan.

[Kryptonic]

Well put and 1000% dead on.

[Shabazz]

My not liking this trade has zero to do with Ayton.

[Split T]

Don’t like Nurkic? Little? Allen?

I do think it’s underwhelming, but I think it comes down to it being the best we could get. I think we had to trade him. I don’t think keeping him on the roster to start the season was a good option.

[Shabazz]

I just don’t think this is the best we could have gotten. That‘s all.

Even if James Jones scoured the entire market (I have doubts)and not a single other team wanted Ayton, all indications are Portland really did and needed us to make this trade happen. I don’t think Jones leveraged that fully.

[ShadowHawke]

A fan on another forum posted this which I think sums up my thoughts about Ayton's Suns tenure and departure quite well:

It will be interesting to watch games where I no longer complain about effort. Will there be games where somewhat limited players don’t excel? Sure. But I don’t expect to question their effort or motivation. What a relief that will be.

To be totally transparent, I’m a little crestfallen that today marks a day where we have to admit that our only #1 pick in Suns history, and the seeming best Suns center, failed to ever live up to our expectations as a Sun. That’s locked in now. Can’t even hang onto potential. And that is sad.

What I’m not sad about is not having to root for a big goofy man-child that deep down I believe just won’t ever be what he could be. I won’t have to worry about his #1 priority being his next contract. I won’t have to hear the statements made evidence a complete lack of self-awareness. I won’t have to watch him fumble passes. I won’t have to watch him get pushed outta post position by point guards. I won’t have to see him get pushed outta bounds on box outs without effort from him. I won’t have to wish he could draw fouls.

I truly wish him well. Seems like a nice enough guy. But man am I glad that I don’t have to root for him anymore. And I was so stoked when we drafted him. But I don’t. I won’t miss it at all. In fact i feel a kind of lightness with his departure. I’ve never said that about any player on any team for which I’m a fan.

Unfortunately, Ayton would vacillate between best Suns center ever and JBC.

[JeremyG]

A fan on another forum posted this which I think sums up my thoughts about Ayton's Suns tenure and departure quite well:

It will be interesting to watch games where I no longer complain about effort. Will there be games where somewhat limited players don’t excel? Sure. But I don’t expect to question their effort or motivation. What a relief that will be.

If you listen to Blazers fans, you’ll be questioning Nurkic’s effort a lot.

[Shabazz]

And yes, the package is underwhelming. There are a lot of good centers out there and despite all of the people convincing themselves Nurkic is a better fit, he’s still not in the top half of starting centers in the league and brings some major question marks (Defense, health).

Little is a good gamble, but is not a clear upgrade over KBD, JO or Yuta.

Allen (despite being detestable) is a good player, but very much redundant with our army of 6 ft 3- 6 ft 5 off ball shooters.

I like the added depth, but the reality is we downgraded our top 5 and maybe didn’t net more than an improvement on our 9 and 10 spots, which won’t matter a ton in the playoffs. Ayton was our last chip and I’m not sure what we can hang our hat on from this trade.

I’m also skeptical of any of the players we traded for carrying much re-trade value if we can’t feature them. The added flexibility has been an argument people have been making in favor of the move.

[Split T]

I think you’re overestimating Ayton’s trade value. He didn’t have much. What else could we have gotten from Portland? They weren’t sending Sharpe…maybe a 2nd or 2? I just don’t think there was anything else out there and I think we probably looked everywhere. It was no secret we wanted to move him.

[JeremyG]

What’s crazy to think about is that we clearly would have kept Ayton to start the season if Dame hadn’t demanded a trade.

[JeremyG]

I’m also skeptical of any of the players we traded for carrying much re-trade value if we can’t feature them. The added flexibility has been an argument people have been making in favor of the move.

Allen is on an expiring contract so we might be able to move him.

[TOO]

A fan on another forum posted this which I think sums up my thoughts about Ayton's Suns tenure and departure quite well:

It will be interesting to watch games where I no longer complain about effort. Will there be games where somewhat limited players don’t excel? Sure. But I don’t expect to question their effort or motivation. What a relief that will be.

If you listen to Blazers fans, you’ll be questioning Nurkic’s effort a lot.

His teams stunk, hopefully he'll try because the Suns are good. At the very least he'll cost half as much. Ayton wouldn't even try when the games mattered.

[Superbone]

A fan on another forum posted this which I think sums up my thoughts about Ayton's Suns tenure and departure quite well:

It will be interesting to watch games where I no longer complain about effort. Will there be games where somewhat limited players don’t excel? Sure. But I don’t expect to question their effort or motivation. What a relief that will be.

If you listen to Blazers fans, you’ll be questioning Nurkic’s effort a lot.

We'll see. I admittedly haven't watched him a whole lot but I don't recall questioning his effort when I did watch him play. That is, when he's not injured. Am I right? Seriously though, I don't know that he's going to play a lot and might be a situational player for us going up against the other Goliaths in the league. Eubanks is much more mobile.

[JeremyG]

A fan on another forum posted this which I think sums up my thoughts about Ayton's Suns tenure and departure quite well:

It will be interesting to watch games where I no longer complain about effort. Will there be games where somewhat limited players don’t excel? Sure. But I don’t expect to question their effort or motivation. What a relief that will be.

If you listen to Blazers fans, you’ll be questioning Nurkic’s effort a lot.

We'll see. I admittedly haven't watched him a whole lot but I don't recall questioning his effort when I did watch him play. That is, when he's not injured. Am I right? Seriously though, I don't know that he's going to play a lot and might be a situational player for us going up against the other Goliaths in the league.

With Vogel as coach, I expect him to start and play starter-level minutes every game he’s available to play.