I was wondering if playing Eubanks at the 4 alongside of Ayton might be beneficial for us having him play in a weakside defender role and roaming around the paint if Ayton is being used out on the perimeter primarily in drop coverage schemes?
I think Metu is more likely to share the court with Ayton than Eubanks. But I could be wrong.
Also this might also allow us to move Durant to the smal forward position to avoid having him play against the bigger, more physical forwards of the league reducing potential wear and tear and injury risks?
Well as things stand now, I think KBD will man the starting 4 spot, so yes Durant will be at the 3.
Thanks man! I'd just feel somewhat better IF Durant moved to the 3, not just to fill that gap, utilize his size advantage more, but also to minimize the durability concerns (given his slight frame) having to play against more physical, rugged 4/5's. I was curious about Eubanks because of his mobility, athleticism, and shooting 38% from three as a potential floor spacer in specific matchups. But could fully see the value of playing Metu defensively and for rebounding at the four too.
One serious question. Would you rather pay Ayton what he is making or Sabonis 43.4mm per year for the next 5 years?
Might be time to stop thinking of Ayton as horribly overpaid, just borderline so.
Domantas Sabonis
19PTs/12 Reb per game...3Pt % 37%, 2Pt % 64%, 5.5FTAs at a FT% of 74%
~$19 Million/Year...but NOW going to $47M/yr...and I'm not sure I wouldn't consider that w/the differences in performance...much higher 3Pt % and he's more aggressive, which matters.
DA
18PTs/10 Reb per game...3Pt 29%, 2Pt % 60%, 3FTAs at a FT% of 76% (Corrected, misread rebounds...)...still, given I don't need the waterboy to wheel him around (Sabonis)...
~$33 Million/Year
Um...I'll take Sabonis every day and twice on Sunday...
Last edited by Vladimir_Taltos on Sun Jul 02, 2023 1:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I will say Ayton’s deal is looking less problematic after the deals given out this weekend. Poeltl and López both got 20 million+
Given that any team needs to field a roster with a floor budget spending, having Ayton as your sole max contract or only bad contract (any way you wish to see it) it’s not that bad.
But when you are against the wall spending wise like the Suns are, resources ALLOCATION becomes far more important that value-in-a-vacuum. That’s why the smart thing to did, was to break his contract on 2-3 role players earning over the minimum. Suns did an amazing job filling the roster out of minimum contracts, but if it works on the court, they won’t be able to retain some, if any, of those signing.
Granted, if teams were lowballing the Suns on their Ayton’s offer, it was even smarter to hang onto him an filling the roster this way.
One serious question. Would you rather pay Ayton what he is making or Sabonis 43.4mm per year for the next 5 years?
Might be time to stop thinking of Ayton as horribly overpaid, just borderline so.
Domantas Sabonis
19PTs/12 Reb per game...3Pt % 37%, 2Pt % 64%, 5.5FTAs at a FT% of 74%
~$19 Million/Year...but NOW going to $47M/yr...and I'm not sure I wouldn't consider that w/the differences in performance...much higher 3Pt % and he's more aggressive, which matters.
DA
18PTs/7 Reb per game...3Pt 29%, 2Pt % 60%, 3FTAs at a FT% of 76%
~$33 Million/Year
Um...I'll take Sabonis every day and twice on Sunday...
In what universe does DA average 7 reb per game? You must be looking at Myles Turner’s stats or something.
"I'm a Deandre Ayton guy."--Al McCoy, September 21, 2022.
Everyone said we couldn’t fill out the roster without getting rid of Ayton. I told you all we would be fine.
We really don't know yet that the team is "fine". Like a lot of people on this message board, I'm intrigued with the possibilities of some of these potential 5th-9th guys that the front office picked up. But it's far from a guarantee that any of them will actually be playable in a playoff series, when it matters.
At least there's some time to evaluate and make changes during the season if it looks like it will be necessary. I think you still can't rule out trading Ayton at some point for role players that have a more-proven track record.
It's still all about being healthy at playoff time.
Author of The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts
Available from Scarecrow Press at - https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810890695
It's still all about being healthy at playoff time.
Of course. Very underrated about Denver's run this year: none of the eight guys that were playing core minutes for them in the playoffs spent any time hurt. It looks like the rookie Braun (who played the fewest minutes of the eight) missed one game; outside of that they were startlingly healthy for a 20-game stretch.
I'm sure it helped that, other than the second-round series against the Suns, they were always playing with a significant rest advantage going into every series.
IF Ayton buys in to Vogel and understands what a great situation he is in, he could have a career year. A lot of ifs but I'm feeling pretty good about this upcoming season based on what I know about the FAs we have acquired. And then Gordon was the cherry on top for me. This upcoming season on paper is probably our best shot at an NBA Championship in our 55 year history!
As Bob said, health is always the X-factor. To that point, at least we no longer have to worry about leaning into Chris Paul ball only for him to eventually miss games in the Playoffs. I hope Kevin Young has something cooked up to balance the offensive workload.
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