DeAndre Ayton makes the Phoenix Suns relevant again
By Adam Maynes
In an era in which the Phoenix Suns have literally missed the playoffs every year for the entire lives of some fans, DeAndre Ayton is about to make them relevant.
Sometimes to make a team relevant, all a player has to do is appear. All fans need to know is that eventually that player will be wearing that team’s uniform and the sporting world will pay attention.
Take when the Suns traded for Charles Barkley, for instance. The day he arrived in Phoenix he was treated like a rockstar. Thousands of people swarmed the airport, the media reported on his every move, it was the kind of reception the Pope had received five years earlier, only Barkley wasn’t there to save man’s souls, he came here to win basketball games.
Phoenix Suns
Yet suddenly, because of one man’s presence, the medium-sized town had become a City.
DeAndre Ayton isn’t Charles Barkley, but he is making the Phoenix Suns relevant.
By missing the playoffs for the past eight seasons, the Phoenix Suns franchise has watched, helplessly, as fans from around the world found opportunities to live their fandom with other teams. During this extended period of playoff absences, the Golden State Warriors have become the golden-child of the league, a mantel the Suns once owned only several years prior, and fans – even in Phoenix – have turned their basketball love and devotion to a team in a state that in sports is usually Arizona’s most vile rival.
But teams in the Suns’ situation, one of general obscurity and self-imposed exile from honest competition for their opponents, do not get opportunities like the one Phoenix has before them, very often.
Through potentially the greatest quirk of drafting fate the Suns have ever been blessed with, they drafted a potential superstar 13th overall in 2015 when they selected Devin Booker. Not even a starter on his own Kentucky team, Booker quickly began putting up Kobe Bryant-like numbers, and while he hasn’t yet gained the admiration of all fans everywhere, he is certainly one more great statistical season away from becoming a perennial All-Star.
In 2017, the Suns had another chance at drafting first overall, finishing with the second best odds at the pick, only to slip down to fourth. This time through a series of strategic maneuvering and political intrigue, General Manager Ryan McDonough managed to juke the Boston Celtics and select the player he coveted from the beginning, Josh Jackson. (Could he be the next Clyde Drexler? If so, then the Phoenix Suns really have something big on their hands.)
Then after another season of abject and unabashed tanking, they finally lost enough games (61) to land the best odds and the worst record in the league. Those odds alone draw attention to a franchise, as everyone and their mother wanted a shot at a generational center.
Winning the lottery too becomes note-worthy to NBA fans and media outlets alike, especially when one can immediately say that the team drafting second is already on the clock and the first choice has already been, essentially, chosen.
All of a sudden the Suns are talked about. People are taking notice. They want to know what the Phoenix Suns look like with DeAndre Ayton?
Now, they are relevant.
While the Suns will not be expected to make the playoffs in 2019 (although, I wouldn’t ever say never…), NBA fans everywhere will be interested not only in how does the potential generational player in Ayton look in the NBA, but then also how does he look playing next to Devin Booker and Josh Jackson? How good will that team be?
How good can that team be?
The questions asked, the attention paid, the interest in the franchise will be at a level not seen since the Steve Nash era – the last player to also make the franchise relevant.
We are in for a long-haul of poignant relevancy, and it couldn’t feel better. Ayton being drafted by the Phoenix Suns will lead SportsCenter.
Ayton’s first post-draft photo shoot in a Suns uniform will be covered by every major sports outlet.
His first Summer League game will be covered and his stats broken down. (Just imagine if he has a 30 and 18 game. NBA fans everywhere will stare in awe. Phoenix Suns fans will be giddy at the prospect of that happening in a regular season game – and then in the playoffs).
Next: Phoenix Suns post-Lottery decisions: The Picks
Preseason games might actually sell out. The Regular Season Opener will feel like a rock concert. If the team racks up a few wins early – if they beat a team they weren’t supposed to beat – purple and orange will once again begin to sprout up around the Valley, and it’ll once again feel much more like the Valley of the Suns.
A generation of NBA fans not yet born, or on the verge of paying attention, will see DeAndre Ayton, Devin Booker, and Josh Jackson, and become a fan – for life.
There is no telling yet if the DeAndre Ayton draft selection will make the Phoenix Suns champions, but he certainly will make the Phoenix Suns relevant.
Heck, the draft hasn’t even happened yet, and he already has.