Last week, Deandre Ayton had a chance to talk about facing his only former professional team. Five years had gone by, including three straight trips to the playoffs and an NBA Finals berth. The Valley-Oop will be remembered for decades. The Phoenix Suns were truly the only team Ayton had ever known. He’d established himself in the NBA well enough to earn a mini-max $150 contract extension, enough to support generations to come in his family.
But it was an uneasy marriage. Ayton wanted a more prominent role, to be seen as one of the pillars of the team on both ends of the court and to get that maxi-max (another $40+ million) contract his draft status and talent base historically received.