Deandre Ayton Discussion: This Is A Platform I Can't Run From

again, the weird issue is that he's having a career-worst offensive season (btw, it looks like nic claxton's offensive season last year, for folks interested in that). defensively, he's been ok to good (not great, but better than say, vucevic).

the two centers i thought we might get in the offseason were lopez and capela (either/or). they're performing a little worse for a little more money than ayton.

iow, beggars could not be choosers.

my guess is ayton's not got much trade value given his PO combined with a lack of bird rights, so we're just going to have to try to make it work. one thing that's become clear is we need him to play minutes with reaves and hayes to play minutes with doncic. so when reaves gets back, the first sub should be hayes and gabe's replacement (praying) for reaves and ayton, who can come back together when luka sits to start the second.

 

Need to make more lion tshirts I guess

 

i think what's funny/sad about the lion shirt type stuff is that the team clearly knew he needed lots of support and encouragement, but he still kind of continued to be him and people just couldn't keep it up for a full year.

 

Got murdered on a couple above the break switches too.

2 rebounds. How?

Here's the Lakers he outrebounded tonight:
Gabe
Timme and he was knocked out in less than 60 seconds

We're not at another game he didn't close and was pulled for Jax in the 4th before JJ went small for the final 2.

 

my man ayton at least made some shots tonight - this was going to happen. Once AR gets back he''ll have another good run.
Just a weird dude

 

Free Vucevic!! Or Myles Turner!!!

 

Eh. Two were toddler airplane spoon fed lobs from Luka. Take those out of the equation and he was 1/4.

 

Roller Coaster ride - it's not really explainable either - Ayton was legit for the first 2 months of the season and above average center who outplayed wemby.
JJ will get the ship righted

 

i've said for a while now that one reason i wouldn't spend too much on the center position is that jj basically doesn't want to play centers. he'll do it because he has to for stretches of games, but you can just tell he's dantoni-ish in this regard.

none of this excuses ayton's mental issues, but my point is that we can win with ayton types if the plan is to play lebron or rui or DFS at center to close halves or games anyway.

 

Not in the playoffs. That's not going to work.

 

actually, it can. what can't work is never playing a center (i.e., going full dantoni). but not playing centers to close halves has been very effective for many different teams.

ayton/hayes is good enough to carry you through the other minutes, as long as you have the starpower we do at other spots.

 

We are not going to advance in the playoffs, closing games with a 41 year old LeBron or Rui at 5 man. Stop with that noise. When have done that? If Redick tried that silly s***, he should be fired immediately after we lost that series. Yeah...that might work for a few minutes during a particular game, but that’s a crazy idea, as some kind of sustainable strategy.

 

what's crazy is openly pining for nikola vucevic in every thread.

 

That's a deflection bro. However yeah Vucevic over Ayton..yep. If you watched the game that's pretty obvious.

 

season-long stats say "meh" and that neither of them would be closing games here.

btw, if you think vuc doesn't fall asleep in the paint defensively, i've got some lowlight reels to show you.

 

Shrug..you can find those, on everyone that played last night. How would you know , who is going to be closing games? You still don't get the point here, with Vucevic.. it's not about being some kind of great defensive 5. He's still a superior option at 5, over Lebron or Rui. Ayton and Hayes too.

 

he's not better than ayton or hayes, who jj views as inferior closing options to rui or lebron (or DFS).

 

it's a long season, but right now i actually don't see him opting out. my cap space plans are factoring him as picking up his PO, which I actually think is good. keeps us from paying a high price for what's likely only a marginal upgrade anyway.

i just keep going back to lopez and capela getting more than the tpmle this past offseason and being super worried about having to shell out 10 million per or more for what could be accomplished with vet mins to young players.

now, prices have already come down on centers--what a coincidence, right after we were desperate for one! where was orlando selling goga for nothing last year?! but i still think ayton at 8 per is probably going to beat whatever the open market will bear, and i want to spend our money on actual areas of need.