DeAndre Ayton’s Journey: From High Expectations to a New Opportunity

DeAndre Ayton was born in Nassau, Bahamas, on July 23, 1998. Having just turned 25, it doesn’t seem that long ago either, even though the feeling seems eternal at the same time. In one way or another, she is still someone young who has only been in the United States for 13 years. And, more specifically, linked to basketball: it was at 12 when he moved to the city of San Diego, in California, where he enrolled at Balboa City School and started playing sports. In his first year he already averaged 21.1 points, 16.0 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game. In 2015, at 16 years old, he asked to transfer to Hillcrest Prep Academy in Phoenix, where he met Marvin Bagley III, a player with whom he would share a certain destiny in the future. In his first season in Arizona he scored 29.2 points, 16.7 rebounds and 3.8 rebounds per game. In the next one, the one before the university stage, his numbers were 26 + 15 + 3.5, in addition to being selected for the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2017. The future was his.

Nobody thought that today Ayton would be a product closer to defenestration than stardom. He has never been completely reviled, but neither has he been loved. And indifference is what fans who refer to him usually carry as their flag. Far away, or so it seems, is that player who chose Arizona over Kansas and Kentucky or who was involved in a controversy unrelated to him, with a payment to join the Wildcats in which they dealt directly with him. Present there were Sean Miller, his coach, and Christian Dawkins, famous for being a key figure in university corruption in its men’s section during that course. None of that mattered then to a player who today seems to be weighed down too much by the pressure, fame and everything that comes from it. In 2017-18, Ayton responded by being named Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year, winning the Karl Malone Award and being named to the first team All-American.

Ayton came in as the No. 1 favorite in the 2018 NBA draft despite the Wildcats’ surprising loss to the University of Buffalo in the first round. After all, he had averaged 20.1 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. He was a future generational player, a basketball player that everyone was already talking about nationally. The teams sharpened their weapons to gain his services and meanwhile ignored some others who were going to enter the top 10, but they did not generate as much confidence as Ayton, who dropped points, was a solid rebounder and a wonderful protector of the area. The predictions came true and the center was chosen by the Suns, thus returning to the place of his second high school (Hillcrest Prep Academy in Phoenix) and forming what was going to be an unbeatable duo with a rising Devin Booker. Behind Ayton, a trickle of players began who would later give a lot of talk: Marvin Bagley III, Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson, Trae Young… A draft that has proven to be (almost always) fantastic from the point of view of talent . Unfortunately, perhaps, for Ayton himself.

What happened to Ayton?

The story of the Bahamian is similar to that of someone else, but different at the same time. Like all stories, in fact. His stay in the NBA has been full of ups and downs, but it hasn’t been bad. It never represents the problem, but neither is it the solution. He suffers from indolence and fails, or that is the feeling, to show all his strength. It always seems that he can give more, but that containment is in his head. And the fact that players of his generation have been so successful does not help the pressure placed on him to be managed in the best possible way. Luka Doncic, without going any further, was Rookie of the Year in his first season, the same as Ayton, who did enter the Best Rookie Quintet and had 16.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in his first season. After that, Doncic has linked four selections for the All Star and another four for the Best Quintet. Trae Young has gone through the Third Best Quintet and has added two All-Star Games. Jaren Jackson won the Best Defender award last year. Meanwhile, DeAndre, nothing. And he was chosen, as you know, ahead of all of them in the draft. And while Marvin Bagley suffered the same fate, it was proven that he was worthless and a fall to hell that was as gradual as it was inexorable began. Today he is on the Pistons, but his reputation is conspicuous by his absence.

Ayton has not averaged more than 18.2 points (in his sophomore year), nor 11.5 rebounds (in the same year). And yes, he has reached double digits in rejections in each of his five seasons, but he has barely reached 1.7 blocks, something that suffers too much if we compare it with his time in high school and college. . Always reliable in front of the basket (he is close to 60% during his career), he does not seem to transfer his statistics to the team’s game, he has a hard time going out to the pick and roll, he does not have distribution power and he is not very given to going for short attackers when The blocks leave you with some outside. The indolence of which he has sinned has been seen on a sustained basis, especially in the playoffs. Of course, he has played in the Finals, the ones the Suns lost to the Bucks in 2021, a round that neither Doncic, nor Trae, nor Jackson have been to. But his 14.7 points and 12 rebounds in that round were little and were not enough to counteract an interior game in which Giannis Antetokounmpo had a lot to say.

A new opportunity

The transfer that brought Lillard to the Bucks was done three-way with the Suns and Blazers… and Ayton ended up in Oregon. And although Jrue Holiday is also there, the franchise’s intentions to transfer the point guard are not the same as those they have with the center. The objective, or so it seems, is for him to form a duo with Scoot Henderson, a playmaker, number 3 in the draft, who can form a great duo in that exterior-interior theory that sometimes gives results and other times not so much. Beyond the fact that not everyone can be Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, the theory is good: Henderson is 19 years old, Ayton is 25, they are two precocious basketball players with, in theory, a lot of future ahead of them. And the Blazers could bet on them while they rebuild around them, slowly but surely, thus avoiding some blank years that other franchises have had for which the experiment has not gone particularly well. There are still the Pistons, Hornets, a Thunder that is better than before but not good enough to compete in the playoffs… or the Sixers, with a The Process that has gone wrong.

Now, the question is always the same: How much fault is Ayton? His disagreements with the Suns franchise are well known, especially with Monty Williams, who was his coach until last year. Constant arguments, lack of communication… That was the daily bread of the coach and center, who although he has never fully developed, has not had enough opportunities either. What’s more, with how effective he is so close to the rim, it is surprising that he only took 10.7 shots per night in the 2021 Finals (53% accuracy) and that he only attempted 12.2 in his career. His post-match situations are scarce, he almost always limits himself to receiving the last pass from his teammates or grabbing offensive rebounds and he has very little time with the ball in his hands. In the aforementioned Finals he went from playing more than 40 minutes in the first two games (with two wins) to 36 in the last four (all with losses), although in the third he had foul problems. And he spends 30.6 minutes on the track during his career, Monty having preferred to sit him on the bench in important moments.

All of this may disappear in Oregon. Where, without restrictions, Ayton will be able to unleash the player he can theoretically become. Away from the spotlight, which will be elsewhere, and without so much media attention around him, the center will play without the pressure of making the playoffs (it is daring to think that this will be the Blazers’ goal) and will enjoy, in theory, more opportunities near the rim, where it is truly effective. If he takes care of his physicality (he misses between 15 and 20 games a season) and finds his place, he will be able to form a good pairing with Henderson. And we’ll see what his ability is to get along with Chauncey Billups, a coach who has yet to prove anything (60-114 combined in his first two seasons), but also a man who knows what it is to be a player, with a reputation for good guy and close to the players. Ayton can move there, a star who at the moment is not, but who has the talent to become. And that last fight is, in the end, the most complicated to win: the mental one. The one you have with yourself.

2023-09-29 12:59:25
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