spending $100MM over the next 3 yrs on someone that "might be something" isn't inspiring.
Depends how cheap he comes both in talent and how much salary you get off.
I haven't seen him enough to form a real opinion, but since his 2nd year he's averaged 17 ppg and shot 60% from the floor. I know he's not exactly creating very much offense (for himself or others), but 30% of his shots were 10+ feet away from the basket and just 31% of his shots were at the rim, his FG% isn't just layups and dunks (compare this to Timelord, who took 68% of his shots at the rim this year and just 3% of his shots 10+ feet away from the basket). He's prone to disappearing, but seems like he's not gonna be more than a reasonably high volume role player on offense anyway.
His efficiency is fine. But he doesn't stretch the floor (comparing to TL is kinda unfair, as you and I took like 5 fewer shots outside of the restricted area than he did last year), doesn't create for others, and doesn't create for himself. Impact wise he doesn't bend the defense at all, doesn't get to the line, has basically zero gravity if he's not within arms-length of the rim. He averages more career turnovers than assists.
This is all true, but it's an expectations thing for me. If we don't expect him to be a star (or at least are fine with him never being better than the 3rd best scorer on the court), there's nothing wrong with a guy who converts 60% of his shots and scored 20+ in 26 games last year, especially when they aren't all at the rim (and bonus points for being able to hit his free throws at a 75% clip). If he was the 10th pick in the draft instead of the 1st, I think people would view him a lot differently (he'd also make less, so it cuts both ways).
Yeah, Ayton has two problems. One, he was born a couple decades too late. Two, his apathy doesn't care what decade this is he's gonna do what he wants to do....which most of the time is not bother exerting himself offensively. There are some similarities between Ayton and TL....if the latter had the formers contract we wouldn't cut TL so much slack.
Yeah, he really is one of those “leaves you wanting more” players. And that dates back to Arizona.
Yes, it's really the contextual apathy that gets you with Ayton. He is very skilled and very big, and tries sort of hard.....it's almost like he's Not Even Bad.
I don't get why it's important where DA was drafted 5 years ago? We don't care where Joker, Giannis, or SGA were drafted.
I sort of addressed that in parenthesis (you quoted it, but not in bold). It's important where he was drafted because Phoenix (and the league in general) thinks there is unrealized potential in Ayton, in large part because he was the #1 pick. If he was the 10th pick, people wouldn't be expecting more of him and he'd probably be making significantly less, making him more valuable to Phoenix and the league in general.
