Too much on/off for a championship team. Don't think he has the mindset to be a positive impact backup He's the biggest question mark of this offseason for me, honestly don't know what will happen to him, how much we want to pay him, how much he wants to get paid, etc Jason from Hoops Tonight podcast is adamant we need to upgrade center as the priority. He makes a good case for it. In short, he thinks Smart is a better placeholder for a future wing upgrade than Ayton is one for a future center upgrade. It does make sense although I think we need Smart AND another perimeter defended to be more competitive. Saw someone mention Chicago as a potential team that might pay him as they don't have a center and may not be able to use a their cap space. He does fit there Personally, I'm ready to move on but if we find better upgrades elsewhere it's not the end of the world if he opts in and he is the starting center. We can always try to find a trade midseason and he is fine in the regular season
It's too bad, because the guy is all talent and zero motor. Sad to see. If he had 33% of Jax's motor, he'd be great.
don't love that he's still just openly saying that he doesn't want to just defend and rebound. i've said it before, but just look at your counterpart in this series: he just sets screens, defends and rebounds and occasionally drops in a floater. he makes 30 million. you make 8 and might actually make less if you opt out. not sure what it's going to take for you to accept the role, but it's clear that you don't, because as you're spending the bulk of that 5 minutes saying you have, you couldn't resist telling the truth in there. zero reason ayton can't be hartenstein. all mentality. and i'm not fooled. he's way better than what we should have had at center but still not what we really need.
So much effort has to go in just to hype him up to stay engaged. Only for him to be unplayable at our biggest stage. I'd rather JJ and the players efforts go towards something more productive. I'd be fine with him as a backup, but don't think he's mentally capable of handling that role. He can take the lion shirt and his Space Jam sippy cup and go play somewhere else.
not to beat it into the ground, but he's just center dlo. exactly. talented? yes. better than most vet mins (or, like, westbrook)? yes. the answer for a team wanting to contend? nope.
Yeah that comp is spot on and absolutely agree with previous posts. It's all mental and pretty hard to improve there. It's really a shame and when he's on he is an elite rebounder, he has this unique skill of tipping the ball over opponents that is quite valuable. Rebounding was the most important and most mentioned part of the game this year in the league, more than shooting. He could make so much money lol d******
He totally shut down Houston’s offensive rebounding by himself in the last 3 games of that first series. And then successfully offensive rebounded against them. He also has the talent and ability to be a 20 pt highly efficient scorer. He just isn’t a great fit next to Luke, culturally he is a bit odd as well.
Dilly B’s answer should have been Ayton. He is surely the dumbest player in the NBA. Dude could have been one of the best rebounding/defensive bigs if he only had a brain.
He should use it then and realize that he should just focus on rebounding and defense. He also needs to realize that he will never be a number one, number two, or even a number three option on offense for the Top Tier Franchises.
I think he probably realizes that, but is perfectly happy making millions, smoking weed and chilling. Some people are just laid back like that.
The athleticism that seems to be lost from when he was a rookie just a few short years ago is really mind-boggling it’s hard to believe he’s the same guy if he stays in the league, he absolutely is going to be taking a massive pay cut
Yeah this is why I push back when folks talk about how talented he is, if only he had the motor. I don't know that he's that talented anymore. As you said, the athleticism has dropped off materially. He's never had awesome defensive instincts/timing, it was really just the athletic traits that made him a good defensive center early in his career. He has good touch around the rim but that's arguably the least useful skill for a Luka Doncic center since he can spoonfeed anyone high percentage looks. It's nice that he makes free throws, but he doesn't take many off them because he shies away from contract around the rim.
His biggest path to success would have been to be a rebounding/defensive machine. But he isn't. He gets routinely bullied out of the paint by guards and doesn't have the drive to be great. Look at Rudy Gobert for example. Ayton has the physique and talent to be a DPOY contender and that's actually what many expected him to be out of college. Yet, you don't see any of it. He doesn't play good defense, not a good shotblocker, and is just too much of a distraction on a team where you need people to buy in and be willing to play their role. For the value, he's great. You can't beat his production at $10 million. But if he's not willing to continue buying in and do the stuff that is required for him to make the big bucks, just opt out and go gamble on yourself. He could easily secure $25 million dollar contracts just by being an elite defensive rebounding big who can score efficiently. That should have been his goal last offseason but he didn't really improve there.
