djy2j wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 2:16 pm
I don't think he's here past the deadline. Jones is smart enough to know you can't have a max player that has as little impact on the game as Ayton has had this year and make a deep run. He waited to match so he could pay as little as possible to help with a future trade/free agent opportunity. If he really wanted him he would have offered him max out of the gate. The writing is on the wall for Ayton I believe. I still think Jones wants to get Durant here and I think he sees that the asking price dropping as the Nets continue to implode.
My guess is that it's a mixed approach. You can't just let Ayton walk away for nothing in restricted free agency. He is a valuable asset. You re-sign him and either a) he turns out to be really good, in which case, hooray, or b) if he's only so-so, you try to trade the asset for something of value. Luckily I think Ayton is at least playing well enough that he still has trade value. It would be a real disaster if he were having a truly awful season to the point where we couldn't even trade him. At this point we can still get something decent for him, especially if we're willing to include other assets such as a pick or Cam Johnson or Jae Crowder or whatever.
My guess is you try to see if you can get KD for Ayton + extras. If that doesn't work, you start looking into options like KAT or John Collins or Julius Randle or other good-but-not-great players like that. I think that Jones has done well so far in terms of keeping our assets in hand and not just losing them for nothing, while keeping options open to trade them and upgrade in the future.
I do think that if Ayton doesn't improve and we don't find a good blockbuster trade, this season does have the potential to be a big letdown. It's early, but this team as constructed feels like it isn't really a championship contender. Decent playoff team, maybe get to the 2nd round, but that's about it unless we see a big leap from some of our guys. Or find a steal of a trade for Crowder. Or upgrade Ayton for a KD or other blue chipper.