After 25 games, many of which spurned thousands of tweets along the lines of, “The #Suns need Ayton back,” Deandre Ayton finally returned to the Phoenix Suns lineup on Tuesday night against the LA Clippers.
The headlines will read “Deandre Ayton notches double-double in his first game back for the Phoenix Suns,” which is objectively true. Ayton scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds (impressively seven of which were offensive) against the Clippers in just 24 minutes of play. But there is much more to unpack here.
Ayton started the game, putting a rest to the short-lived fan-induced controversy about whether or not Aron Baynes should start over him upon his return.