thelesterlee
DeAndre Ayton’s career was always going to be under scrutiny after going no. 1 over one of the best basketball talents we’ve ever seen in Luka Doncic. Especially when you consider that he was selected by Phoenix because he went to college locally at Arizona. That’s the type of dumb cute shit that puts the Suns in their current contract dispute with their young star.
ESPN Sources: The Phoenix Suns’ reluctance to offer a maximum rookie contract extension to former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton has stalled discussions on a deal: https://t.co/8WottY6jYf
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 5, 2021
Ayton is coming off an NBA Finals runs where he averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds on 63% shooting from the field. He had a 13 points 22 rebound game in the Western Conference Finals against the Clippers that led to Kendrick Perkins calling him the next David Robinson. I mean, he’s not David Robinson, but there are far worse players getting max contracts out here.
Perhaps the Suns front office read too many of those awful stories about Chris Paul’s leadership and Chris Paul dragging the young Suns team to the Finals and carrying them on his small tiny back and Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton should be thankful to wear the same uniform as the great Chris Paul.
Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Porter Jr were all drafted the same year as Ayton and have all received a max extension by now yet Ayton, the one who has actually helped his team make the Finals, is getting strongarmed by Suns owner, Robert Sarver, who considers himself a Big Man expert.
Here’s a story a former Suns player told about Sarver:
“One longtime former player remembers the owner barging into the locker room following a loss to officiously instruct big men on how to set better screens. A former assistant coach was floored when Sarver confronted his boss on the way from the court to the coaches’ office immediately after the buzzer to berate him on his substitution patterns. Another former coach was taken aback when Sarver marched into the head coach’s office at halftime and insisted the team run a trap at an opposing point guard who had abused the Suns’ defense.”
Maybe Ayton isn’t getting the max because he’s not setting better screens?
No matter how many wins a team achieves, they cannot escape the prison of their terrible ownership. Run Deandre Ayton his money.
