All Things Ayton

[Wally_West]

Typically, where there's smoke there's fire. And the Suns easily could've put word out to Gambo or just released a statement saying they weren't trading DA and that he's part of the core. The Gambo tweets were them preparing us for this.

Yep. As soon as Gambo started pushing this, my heart sunk. Knew there was probably some truth to it. The dude (Gambo) prevails.

Yep. It was clear that Ayton was gone when Gambo started gassing up Nurk.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Adios bum. I hope you enjoy the weed and carne asada fries in Portland.

[3TheHardaway]

I don't wish ill on DA but I hope the Blazers win 25 games while playing shitty, disorganized basketball under Billups so DA gets a full view of how good he had it here. But it's more likely he's happy being the focus of the offense, puts up 24 and 8 with no accountability from Billups and tells everyone he's playing like an All-Star.

This, 100%.

I fully expect his counting stats to look great, but those numbers will not be contributing to winning basketball.
That being said, I need to update my pre-draft rankings in the .net fantasy league; Ayton is now a dark horse for solid contibutions there lol.

[Kryptonic]

I don't wish ill on DA but I hope the Blazers win 25 games while playing shitty, disorganized basketball under Billups so DA gets a full view of how good he had it here. But it's more likely he's happy being the focus of the offense, puts up 24 and 8 with no accountability from Billups and tells everyone he's playing like an All-Star.

This, 100%.

I fully expect his counting stats to look great, but those numbers will not be contributing to winning basketball.
That being said, I need to update my pre-draft rankings in the .net fantasy league; Ayton is now a dark horse for solid contibutions there lol.

Thanks for reminding me... LOL!

[Kryptonic]

Typically, where there's smoke there's fire. And the Suns easily could've put word out to Gambo or just released a statement saying they weren't trading DA and that he's part of the core. The Gambo tweets were them preparing us for this.

Yep. As soon as Gambo started pushing this, my heart sunk. Knew there was probably some truth to it. The dude (Gambo) prevails.

Yep. It was clear that Ayton was gone when Gambo started gassing up Nurk.

I'll give Gambo credit on this... Kudos to him, but wish he would have been wrong.

[Kryptonic]

I don’t know, it seems inevitable to me…I just worry about the return. I’m preparing for it to be something like Nurkic and Little or someone on that level.

I know you want Ayton gone, but you’re misreading the situation.

The Suns are not shopping Ayton. They are not looking to trade him. Portland highly covets Ayton and wants him included in a Dame deal. The Suns are simply telling Portland that this is going nowhere if you don’t include Sharpe (as an example, per Flex).

They are not going to trade Ayton just to get rid of him. There is no reason to think that anything has changed in this regard from July. In fact, the opposite is likely true: the Suns value him even more after the Bahamas tournament.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Definitively the end of an era, I don’t know how are going to compensate for all the lost production that we are about to endure, it will have to be a team effort. This guy put up numbers even in his sleep, and added a really different dimension, with an attitude rarely seen it around here. He is going to make Portland better, I’m sure some people are already looking forward to him joining them over there. Many times I clashed with his antics, but I have to say it: Jeremy G, you were one of a kind, in a separate class by yourself!!!

And regarding Ayton, even if this trade was a dollar for 4 dimes… if the dollar is fake, are we really downgrading? Pretty sure the team see this as adition by substraction, and no way the repeating stars from last season were not totally on board to pull the trigger, considering how awful it looks, still it means that’s how awful Booker and KD felt about keeping Ayton around.

I am firmly against contributing to get this thread to 200 pages, bit it felt right to do it today, so I could skip the Good Riddance thread on Ayton as well.

[Flagrant Fowl]

[Superbone]

[BKinSJC]

I don't wish ill on DA but I hope the Blazers win 25 games while playing shitty, disorganized basketball under Billups so DA gets a full view of how good he had it here. But it's more likely he's happy being the focus of the offense, puts up 24 and 8 with no accountability from Billups and tells everyone he's playing like an All-Star.

This, 100%.

I fully expect his counting stats to look great, but those numbers will not be contributing to winning basketball.
That being said, I need to update my pre-draft rankings in the .net fantasy league; Ayton is now a dark horse for solid contibutions there lol.

That ... sounds a lot like his rookie season in Phoenix, so he already knows what getting his teeth kicked in sixty times in a season feels like.

One might almost think that, if he appreciated winning above some vague feeling of being appreciated or being able to play however he wants or the self-satisfaction of getting 20 shots a game, that he'd have worked on ways that he could best contribute to the winning situation that he was already a part of. But it seems like his priorities revolve around getting paid and feeling like "the man," so maybe tanking/rebuilding Portland is what he's actually been looking for.

My eulogy for his time here: I've essentially never really been mad at Ayton, but I've almost always been disappointed in him. So much physical potential to be an impactful, winning player, to actually "fix the paint" and dominAyt. So few actual results, so many excuses; so many times when he seemed on the verge of "getting it," so many regressions to below the mean.

Bye, Deandre. You may be gone, but you'll always be with us as a big old addition to the "what-if" file.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I wish I could like that post twice and I already used a gif for Aztec. Well said.

[Superbone]

Time to retire my Ayton quote. This will be my last post that includes it. However, it's the reason I'm not too torn up today. It gets to the heart of his deep imaginAyton versus reality.

"I play as physical as it gets. Maybe I am playing too hard." - Deandre Ayton

[In2ition]

Burns & Gambo asked the question, "Who is the most anticipated athlete to leave a Valley team, that you were following to see how they do the next season?" Or somethng like that. Personally, I could care less about following Ayton next year. He can do good or bad, I don't care. I follow Mikal and Cam Johnson, and I would even like to see how Toumani does more than I care about how Ayton does. I have total apathy towards him in Portland, tbph.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Funny thing is, the Blazers were terrible and he's still not the best player on that team now.

[Split T]

He’s probably 3rd(Simons and Grant). Maybe even Scoot

[Superbone]

He’s probably 3rd(Simons and Grant). Maybe even Scoot

Still part of the big four!

[Split T]

He’s definitely worth developing for them though. I gotta imagine Grant will be trade bait at some point as well. Maybe even Simons. Scoot/Sharpe/Ayton is probably their core going forward. Plus whatever they can acquire from Grant and/or Simons.

[JeremyG]

Y’all have such Hayton blinders on. He will be Portland’s leading scorer and leading rebounder this year.

[Split T]

Y’all have such Hayton blinders on. He will be Portland’s leading scorer and leading rebounder this year.

You wanna put a bet on that? I don’t care about the rebounding, he better be the leading rebounder, he’s their center, but on the scoring?

[JeremyG]

Y’all have such Hayton blinders on. He will be Portland’s leading scorer and leading rebounder this year.

You wanna put a bet on that? I don’t care about the rebounding, he better be the leading rebounder, he’s their center, but on the scoring?

Absolutely. They just traded arguably the number one player in franchise history for him. You really think they don’t plan on utilizing him?