Tag: DeAndre Ayton

Podcast: Deandre Ayton’s free agency, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, Robert Sarver investigation

HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto and The Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin discussed Deandre Ayton’s future in free agency, Chris Paul’s MVP candidacy, Devin Booker’s quick turnaround from the NBA Finals and Team USA, the latest on the Robert Sarver investigation, and more on the latest edition of the HoopsHype podcast.

For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.

Houston Rockets report card: Player grades from Thursday’s loss at Suns

Kevin Porter Jr. scored a team-high 20 points and the Rockets again played well on the road versus a West power, but it still wasn’t enough to win at Phoenix.

Two nights after an encouraging performance in a close loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles, the Rockets followed it up with another strong road effort versus defending Western Conference champion Phoenix.

Unfortunately, given the tough opponent, it still resulted in a 123-111 loss (box score) for Houston — which dropped its sixth straight to fall to 1-7 on the 2021-22 season. The Suns (4-3) won their third straight game. The Rockets rallied from an 11-point deficit in the early going to take a lead well into the third quarter, but the defending West champs broke the game open with a 14-of-31 showing from 3-point range (45.2%).

Phoenix outscored Houston 67-50 in the second half, including 37-25 in a decisive third quarter. All-Star guard Devin Booker paced the hosts with 27 points and 9 rebounds, while backcourt mate and future Hall of Famer Chris Paul added 13 assists. The Rockets were led by Kevin Porter Jr. (20 points, 6 rebounds) and Christian Wood (18 points, 15 rebounds).

Read on for our assessment of individual Houston performances. Grades are limited to players who had at least 20 game minutes, since anything less wouldn’t represent a sufficient enough sample to evaluate. Grades are also decided relative to a player’s average performance — in other words, the standard for Wood is higher than it is for David Nwaba.

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How Suns’ failure to extend Deandre Ayton impacts their title window

Phoenix and Ayton were unable to reach a deal by Monday’s deadline.

Monday’s deadline for NBA teams to come to an agreement on rookie contract extensions with their 2018 first-rounders came and went without the Suns and center Deandre Ayton reaching a deal.

Ayton wanted the five-year maximum extension received by classmates Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Porter Jr., but the Suns weren’t willing to offer him a max, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.

This means the reigning Western Conference champions’ window to compete could be coming to a close sooner than it has to. 

As the 2021-22 season tips off Tuesday, Phoenix has +1500 odds on Tipico Sportsbook to finish the season as champions, tied for seventh-best with the Denver Nuggets. If the Suns don’t find a way to retain one of the brightest young centers in the NBA, one whose full potential still may not have been discovered, those odds are probably as good as it ever gets.

With an aging Chris Paul again leading the charge, the Suns were going to play this season with a sense of urgency anyway. But the expectation was that Phoenix would have a core of Ayton, Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges — who did receive a rookie extension — to continue building around once Paul’s time in the desert comes to an end.

The Suns and owner Robert Sarver, evidently, don’t view Ayton as a max player, however, and the sides’ failure to reach a deal has left the big man feeling slighted. 

“I love Phoenix, but I’m really disappointed we haven’t really gotten a deal done yet,” Ayton said last week about the negotiations. “We were two wins away from winning a championship and I just really want to be respected, to be honest. To be respected like my peers are being respected by their teams.”

Now without a deal, Ayton can enter restricted free agency next summer and sign an offer sheet with another team, if he so chooses. Phoenix could match the deal, something it may be more inclined to do if he continues to build on his stellar playoff showing last season, but the team would be doing so at the risk of retaining a disgruntled star who no longer wants to be there.

Or, Ayton could decline restricted free agency by signing a one-year qualifying offer to play out the 2022-23 season in Phoenix and become an unrestricted free agent the following summer. Phoenix, fresh off a 10-year playoff drought, would lose him for nothing and potentially be rebuilding all over again barring a big move in free agency. Instead of competing for the next 5-10 years, Phoenix’s run could come to an end very soon.

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Players who didn’t extend and are headed to restricted free agency

Here’s a look at those players that will be headed to restricted free agency in 2022 after the rookie-scale extension deadline passed.

The rookie-scale extension deadline has passed with a flurry of extensions for the 2018 draft class. Eleven players were extended, including four players signing maximum extensions. These extensions combine for a total of $1.146 billion in guaranteed money.

Twelve players on rookie-scale contracts that were extension-eligible did not extend and it will be interesting to see how the 2022 free agent market shakes out for them. There are now only 4 teams that can generate significant cap space next offseason, which explains why so many players extended now. Here’s a look at those players that will be headed to restricted free agency in 2022.

Playoff MVP rankings: Who performed the best in the postseason?

Ranking the top performers of the 2021 NBA playoffs.

There’s no NBA version of the NHL’s Conn Smythe Trophy, the award handed out at the end of the hockey season to the most valuable player of the playoffs.

The closest thing is the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award. But that solely captures a players’ performance in the championship series, not taking into account the run to get there.

It’s worth taking a look back at a roller coaster of a postseason — filled with 50-point masterpieces and clutch shots, each more impressive than the last — to create a top-10 ranking of its best overall performances.

Here’s the formula: I added a player’s Game Score (GS) metric (per Basketball Reference) for each game he played in the playoffs, divided that overall sum by the number of games they played to get an average GS and then multiplied the sum GS and the average.

In layman’s terms, I’m taking into account both the quality of a player’s performance and their team’s longevity in the playoffs. So while the fact that, say, P.J. Tucker played 23 games this postseason boosts his sum score, his average GS wasn’t high enough to get him considered. Also, I only took into account players that appeared in more than 10 games, so Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James and more were left off the list despite strong numbers.

Deep breaths. Let’s hop into it.

The 11 best blocks in NBA history

Giannis Antetokounmpo on Deandre Ayton, LeBron James on Andre Iguodala and the other nine greatest blocks in NBA history, according to us.

Game 4 of the 2021 NBA Finals saw Giannis Antetokounmpo execute what will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest blocks in NBA history, up there with LeBron James on Andre Iguodala in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, among other memorable swats.

So that immediately got us thinking: If we broke it down to the 11 best blocks in the history of the Association, what other swat-aways would make the list?

For our purposes, we’re taking into account the stakes at hand, degree of difficulty on said blocks and sheer audacity by the blocker in question.

Below, check out what we came up with as the 11 best blocks in NBA history in no particular order.

Watch: Monty Williams motivates Deandre Ayton during fourth quarter

Watch the Suns’ coach and former Irish player motivate one of his key players.

Notre Dame product Monty Williams has coached the Phoenix Suns to two wins away from their first NBA championship. His leadership was on display during the Suns’ 118-108 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. One example came during a fourth-quarter timeout in which he talked with center Deandre Ayton about guarding Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. He then immediately transitioned into a motivational speaker for a player whose effort absolutely was needed to get his team to the finish line:

Ayton seemed to take Williams’ advice to “dominate with force” to heart. During the game’s final 7:40, Ayton had three rebounds, two steals and one block. No player on either team had higher numbers in any of those categories in that span. It wrapped up a night in which Ayton had a double-double of 10 points and 11 boards to go with a game-high three steals.

If you have any doubt about Williams’ ability to get the best out of his players during crunch time, look no further than this example.

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Mic’d-up video showed a fantastic coaching moment between Monty Williams and Deandre Ayton

“Go dominate the game with force.”

The Phoenix Suns are just two wins away from their first NBA championship in franchise history, and the excellent coaching performance from Monty Williams deserves much of that credit.

We saw — and heard — that coaching in full force during Thursday’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Early in the fourth quarter, the ESPN on ABC broadcast cut to a mic’d-up conversation between Williams and Suns big man Deandre Ayton. The Suns center hadn’t been at his best for much of the game, especially compared to his stellar Game 1 performance. But Williams made sure to get his center’s mindset back on track ahead of the crucial fourth quarter.

Williams said:

“Look at me, you set a high level for yourself. That’s why you’re down. That’s great. Now, go reach that level. And you can reach it with force. Doesn’t have to be stats all the time. Go dominate the game with force. OK? Because you set a high level for yourself. Go dominate the game with force. Let’s go!”

As far as an in-game speech on the fly, that’s pretty great. Williams saw that Ayton was frustrated and urged him to channel that frustration to make a positive impact on the game.

That’s the kind of coaching that gets you to an NBA Finals, and it was cool to hear that as a viewer.

https://youtu.be/lUq6ZIhSIeg

Deandre Ayton poked fun at Devin Booker’s broken nose with hilarious pregame shirt

A show of “support” from one Suns player to another.

Devin Booker has been the hot topic of conversation in the NBA these last few days. From suffering a broken nose in Game 2 of the Phoenix Suns vs. Los Angeles Clippers series, to coming back to end the game and getting pushed by Boogie Cousins after the final buzzer, and finally wearing a face mask in Game 3 to protect that same broken nose, Booker’s been one of the faces of the Western Conference Finals for a reason.

And what a face he has, as Suns teammate Deandre Ayton wore Booker’s unfortunate dustup from Game 2 on a shirt ahead of Game 4 in L.A. in a hilarious show of support from one Phoenix player to another.

From FaceTiming Chris Paul together after the Suns Game 1 victory to poking fun at the other’s unfortunate broken nose, Ayton and Booker have quite the friendship out there in Phoenix.