Suns News: Week 21 (3/7 to 3/13)

[Superbone]

After watching Paul, most point guards are "missing something".

[Split T]

[Indy]

I really hope that means ownership stuff, not team stuff.

[TOO]

I don't know how I'm gonna feel if Sarver isn't forced out. What if he goes full shitbird and wants to blow the team up? Ugh.

[Split T]

I think it’s gotta be Sarver related

[Superbone]

Who is Brad Townsend? We constantly get "Suns-related news".

[Split T]

Covers the mavericks

[bajanguy008]

[Superbone]

How things have changed. Remember before he had played a single game in the NBA and he was wondering how he was going to get that first extension?

[Indy]

Good to hear, even if he didn't believe it 100%.

[TOO]

Yeah its hard for me to believe anything that comes from Aytons mouth after the whole I just wanna get to my second contract thing. Turned me off of him immediately, always sits there in the back of my mind. Does he go full Bynum once he gets paid?

[Indy]

Yeah its hard for me to believe anything that comes from Aytons mouth after the whole I just wanna get to my second contract thing. Turned me off of him immediately, always sits there in the back of my mind. Does he go full Bynum once he gets paid?

that is a scary thought.

I just can't imagine a world in which Ayton deserves to be the highest paid player on this team.

[bajanguy008]

I can't fault anyone for pessimism but I still believe that although he still has lapses that his overall approach changed when he became a dad
Still think that's a factor in all this, he says some on court stuff "play wise," that I might be like Hmmm sometimes
The set an example for lil Dre takes I completely buying in though

[Split T]

Someone did bring up on Twitter how we are one of the few teams you can’t play a switch everything strategy against. Ayton has destroyed switches this year. The small-ball switch everything defense has become a playoff staple to throw pick and roll based teams off. Those teams generally have a rim running big, but our rim running big actually has skill and touch around the basket.

It seems like we’ll either feast on switches or force teams to stay in their base defense, which allows us to stay in our base offense. I harp on Ayton often, but he is a very good player with a unique skill set that makes us hard to defend.

[Drewsprocket]

Yeah its hard for me to believe anything that comes from Aytons mouth after the whole I just wanna get to my second contract thing. Turned me off of him immediately, always sits there in the back of my mind. Does he go full Bynum once he gets paid?

Ayton’s mentality is somewhere between Bynum and Shaq. Shaq is sort of an alpha with B+/- work ethic. Bynum is definitely worst case scenario. I think Ayton’s effort and focus wanes a lot. I’m not sure he’s worth having as a max player once CP3 retires. I’d rather have the consistency of Bam Adebayo but less physical dominance than Ayton’s off and on focus and sometimes lagging bball IQ.

[Superbone]

I really hope we can sign him to a less than max but fair contract. Problem is that other teams will be willing to max him to get him. We'll probably only have a choice of matching a max contract or moving on via sign and trade.

[BigLewy]

I'm dreading giving Ayton a max deal, and that is what it will take because a team will surely max him in FA this summer. I just don't see him becoming much more than he is now. I'd honestly explore a sign and trade if it's max or nothing. Although if we do win it all, I cannot see that happening. If he had the drive/aggressiveness of Amare, I'd max him in an instant, and I'm sure Sarver already would have as well.

[Indy]

There is no way Sarver will pay Ayton and Book and Paul all between 30M-40M a year, while paying Mikal and Cam 20-25M each. It just won't happen.

[Mori Chu]

I have a hard time seeing how the Ayton thing ends up. One possibility is that he has another outstanding playoffs this year and we win a title. In that case I bet he gets his max. If we don't win the title, and/or if Ayton doesn't play super well in the playoffs, then what? Do we try to trade him? I still think he's super valuable to us even though he is inconsistent and not assertive enough to be a team leader. If we just lose him and get little to nothing back, it'll really hurt us. Flaws and all, he's averaging 17 ppg on 64% FG and 10 rpg. He gives us something that pushes us from a great team to a title team. It'd be hard for me to see us let him go.

[Indy]

Someone did bring up on Twitter how we are one of the few teams you can’t play a switch everything strategy against. Ayton has destroyed switches this year. The small-ball switch everything defense has become a playoff staple to throw pick and roll based teams off. Those teams generally have a rim running big, but our rim running big actually has skill and touch around the basket.

It seems like we’ll either feast on switches or force teams to stay in their base defense, which allows us to stay in our base offense. I harp on Ayton often, but he is a very good player with a unique skill set that makes us hard to defend.

Ayton has been amazing on defense for us, and we would not have the best record in the league without him. And we wouldn't have made the Finals last year without him. And I still don't want to sign him to a max deal.