After the NBA Draft came and went without a Deandre Ayton trade materializing, word came this weekend that the Suns were planning on keeping Ayton, with the party line being that they valued him greatly and were excited to see what he could do paired with their trio of stars.
That, to many, felt like both damage control with Ayton in case he did have to return and an effort to seem less desperate to move him to the rest of the league. Ayton’s value is not particularly high around the league given his max contract and questions about his desire to fit into the role that’s likely best suited for his skillset and position — which is a rim protector on defense and pick-and-roll finisher primarily on offense. Ayton seems to want a larger role and has had a propensity to get frustrated and allow his energy and effort on the defensive end wane when he isn’t getting the touches he feels he should get on offense. Those touches only figure to decrease with another high usage guard in the fold in Bradley Beal, so it’s fair to wonder if Ayton, despite being theoretically a perfectly good fit with Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant, is the right center to put them with.
On Tuesday, we got our first concrete reporting on what Ayton trade talks transpired at and after the Draft, with Marc Stein bringing word that Phoenix and Dallas were in talks that advanced far enough to have a proposed swap in place, but with the Suns backing out at Dallas insisting on having JaVale McGee going back to Phoenix.
The Phoenix Suns engaged in advanced discussions to trade former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton to the Dallas Mavericks last week during the NBA Draft before the talks stalled, league sources say. The proposed deal, sources tell The Stein Line, would have sent Ayton to Dallas for Tim Hardaway Jr., Richaun Holmes and JaVale McGee — but the Suns balked at McGee’s inclusion.
McGee’s last solid season came in Phoenix, but that was playing with Chris Paul who has made just about every center that walked through Phoenix’s doors look good in pick-and-roll. In Dallas, he looked old and struggled to get on the floor for a team that had serious frontcourt depth issues, indicating that he might simply be cooked. Still, for a team that’s having to dig deep to fill out its roster, its a bit surprising the inclusion of an expiring was enough to make them walk away, but Stein also notes it’s possible for these talks to resume. The Suns also wouldn’t get any draft capital out of the deal, but would get two rotation players to fill out depth that right now they simply don’t have.
For Dallas, they’d be banking on Ayton being the pick-and-roll partner that Luka Doncic hasn’t had yet in his career as a lob threat as a roller — with Kyrie Irving likewise benefitting from that kind of big man. The question, of course, is whether playing with Doncic and Irving would keep Ayton engaged enough to be the player they need him to be, but — again, in theory — he is the kind of big Dallas wants. For now, this is all just a “what could’ve been” scenario, but we’ll see exactly how dug in the Suns are on keeping Ayton and whether Dallas is willing to alter this deal’s structure to try and get it across the finish line at a later date.