The argument that raged all last summer in Phoenix has gotten quieter recently. Winning will do that. So will peak performance from a player to whom a desperate franchise hinged its hopes.
Deandre Ayton is playing impassioned, explosive basketball for the first time all season and making even his greatest skeptics accept that he is getting better in a hurry.
The big man, who played power forward until this season, called on those ingrained perimeter skills to contain two of the most fearsome and versatile playmakers in NBA history in consecutive games at home this week for his best defensive performances of the season.