Suns' Deandre Ayton says PF is his 'born-and-raised position'Arizona Sportshttps://arizonasports.com › story › suns-deandre-ayton-...
Why couldn't Ayton play PF? He's similar to LaMarcus Aldridge, in his life for the short jumper. LA was no more fleet afoot than Ayton. Ayton is not a stiff. Ayton actually has an exceptional mid range jump shot, he hit about 50% of his mid range 2's last year. His shooting percentages are much better than Aldridge's.
LA wasn't fast either. We paired LA with Lopez and had a pretty good team. Some people totally ignore the benefits that a big man brings. The 3pt shot is not the end all be all. The highest % shot is till in the paint, by a long shot.
If Ayton doesn’t cause any locker room problems I have no issue keeping him till the deadline or next year. Grant and Ant need to go though, they are roadblocks for other players now.
It's been a minute since that LMA/RoLo front court was effective and I personally think as mobile as Ayton is for a 5 that LMA was faster and quicker than DA is now back then. Even then most teams didn't have 4s that were deadly from three point range. In today's NBA Ayton is pretty damn quick for a 5 but at the 4 paired with a guy like Clingan at the 5... personally I don't think that will be enough foot speed to cover what the modern NBA demands of a front court on the defensive end. We would be really hard to rebound against but if it's just shooting practice from three for one of the guys on the opposing team we won't get enough chances to use that dominating rebounding. Don't get me wrong there is no rush. I'm willing to see how it goes but if it looks terrible and like we have so much invested (the 7th pick and our highest salaried player) into one position, I think that might give opposing GMs an upper hand when we start trying to get Ayton out of here. All of that said I think Joe should be shopping DA but he should only take a deal he likes that returns value because I don't think DA has a negative value contract, even as big as it is.
Maybe just maybe for once since LaMarcus walked we should play guys with the speed and size that the status quo seems to demand to be successful in today's league, especially on D. I for one am sick and tired of us trying to fit square pegs into round holes and it's just my hunch but I think we're going to have the same frustrations if we try to shove round pegs into square holes.
Yeah a lot has changed in that decade, I don't think that would work as well today and I still say that Aldridge and Lopez had better combined foot speed than Ayton and Clingan would have.
I actually think Ayton could be amazing with this team and not too old at all. He's athletic, long and has a nice mid range. The idea of him at the four with Williams or Clingan is intriguing to me. Move Grant between the 3 and 4. Force uncomfortable matchups for other teams. I like the idea that for the first time in years, we can threaten teams with length at every position. Even Scoot and Ant are big for point guards.
Yup. Completely agree. I'm really curious to see how a lineup of Clingan, Ayton, Grant, Sharpe & Scoot would do against the T-Wolves big lineup. Obviously, the T-Wolves would be expected to win due to their players being much more experienced, but it feels like the Blazers would be on a similar talent level and might make it interesting.
We have though, Aminu and Grant. But Grant sucks at rebounding and we suffer from lack of size up front.
yeah...this "Ayton can play PF" sure seems like stuck-in-a-time-warp wishful thinking. The NBA isn't anywhere close to the same as it was when Aldridge was in his prime 10-12 years ago. And Aldridge in his prime was quicker than Ayton in a slower NBA; and Aldridge spent most of his time in San Antonio as a C "you are what you can defend" still is the NBA rule with very few exceptions. With that in mind and using BBREF: OKC: Jalen Williams spent 83% of his time at PF; Kinrich Williams 60% of his time at PF Den: Gordon 90% of his time at PF; 6'8 Peyton Watson 60% LAC: Paul George 86% at PF; Kawhi 32% (but having watched, I think the rate was higher at PF for Kawhi, especially after Batum left) Dal: PJ Washington 97%; Derrick Jones 49% Phx: Durant 85% NOP: Zion 86%; Herbert Jones 45% LAL: Lebron 86%; Hachimura 49% Sac: Harrison Barnes 90%; Trey Lyles 82% GSW: Draymond 80%; Kuminga 65% Hou: Jabari Smith 68%; Jeff Green 69%; Cam Whitmore 49% Utah: Collins 70%; Markkanen 49% SA: Jeremy Sochan 84%; Cedi Osman 56% Bos: Jayson Tatum 72%; Al Horford 51%; Sam Hauser 33% NYN: Randle 91%; OG Anunoby 55%; Achiwa 62% Mil: Giannis 59% (41% at C); Portis 83% Orl: Banchero 93%; Issac 87% Ind: Siakam 90%; Obi Toppin Phi: Tobias Harris 63%; Batum 90% Mia: Jimmy Butler 74%; Duncan Robinson 23%; Jovic 81% Chi: Derozan 45%; Patrick Williams 93%; Torrey Craig 81% Atl: Jalen Johnson 94%; De'Andre Hunter 67% Brk: Cam Johnson 76%; Dorian Finney-Smith 45% Cho: Brandon Miller 50%; Grant Williams 43%; PJ Washington 68% Wash: Kuzma 81%; Avdija 42% Det: Stewart 76%; Baogdanovich 59% Minny: KAT 94%; Naz Reid 47%; Kyle Anderson 42% Cle: Mobley 53% (47% at C); Niang 78% a big majority of the guys Ayton would be facing are much quicker. More than that though is that most are very adept at dribble-drives and sticking three's. If the Blazers are foolishly trying a twin towers with Clingan/Ayton, it's almost certain the other teams will primarily do three things: one is force Ayton to spend a lot of time chasing players around the 3pt line (where he'll be 20 feet from the rime during defensive rebounds); another is forcing Ayton to react and recover to dribble-drives around screens. And a 3rd thing is teams would force Ayton & Clingan to deal with PnR with ball handlers like Lebron, PG13, Durant; Tatum, Butler, and Siakam. Considering that both have spent their BB careers as drop-cover C's and that will be their instincts, those PnR plays should be good for some high comedy of course the reality is that it doesn't matter. Portland will be a bad team next season and if they want to experiment with a tall, slow-footed C/PF combo that trip over each other and clog the paint on offense it might be entertaining and worth some chuckles
Maybe, just maybe, we should have a roster comprised of enough disparate pieces that we can be versatile in the lineups we put out there. Maybe a DA/DC pairing will be effective in some situations. Maybe other lineups will be too fast for a drop big, and we'll have DA at center alongside Grant and Avdija. Maybe having options is a good thing.
