Hayes not only did better then him the last 2 games but Hayes actually plays the part of high quality roleplayer now. Ayton maybe done
Wasn’t paying attention when whatever it was happened ….. boo boo he could have returned from or legit injury that might keep lesser mortal than a “tough” guy out of rest of the game?
smart was sticking up for him post-game, i think. maybe that's just smart trying to be a good teammate, though.
Ayton started off really well. But you can just see he is pouting at his role. It all started at that weird stretch when he was playing well but making weird comments. I remember two distinct interviews, one when he had a good game like 19/14 and made a comment (paraphrasing here) that a game like that was expected from him and normal and that he could do much more. The second interview was where JJ made a comment that Ayton had poor defense in the first half of a game but won it for us in the second with his defense. Ayton, perplexingly, said he didn’t play any good defense and had a weird response. Guy’s a fruitloop that probably suffers from some mental disorder, but the fact that he is 7 foot, mobile and athletic keeps him in the nba.
Probably should have moved him at the deadline for anything we could get if possible. Now his value is tanking, he’ll pick up his option, be considered a negative asset we have to attach stuff to to get rid of. Kind of a disturbing pattern of this same issue year after year, but not sure this one could really have been avoided as he was the best option available at the time. Probably need to stop going for these guys on their last chance, reclamation projects, at least without a better coaching staff, front office, team culture in place.
I think there’s almost zero chance we will have to attach assets to get rid of him next year. He’s making 8 million or so. That’s basically scrub money. Someone will take him at that cost.
He’s definitely a head case. But for 8 million a year I’m not complaining too much. With all his warts he’s still 2nd in the NBA in FG %. He and Jax together still make a better tandem than we’ve had in awhile. FWIW, I think he’s battling through some injuries too. He isn’t moving the same.
yeah, he's not the long term answer, but even the half-assed version is worth his contract. i mean, capela and lopez signed for more last summer.
We are going to need Ayton in the playoffs. If you get him shots, he converts at a high clip, and when he scores in double digits, most of the time, he's giving double digits on the boards. We just have to figure this s*** out with him, because we are going to need him, engaged and involved, if we are going to make a run.
we've been over this, but i'm on the side of "ayton's output/efficiency is more about the other team not paying attention to detail than it is about our concerted efforts to involve him". sure, it's both, but good defensive teams will probably easily take away what he does best, and ayton's midrange and post game is a lower expected value on offense than luka or AR just pulling up off the dribble from three. it's not fun to watch, but it's true. what ayton could REALLY do to up his value is attack the offensive boards, imo. that's the primary way that bigs who aren't elite lob threats or shooters can impact a game on offense (see: gobert).
