The NBA Rookie Poll came out on Tuesday and DeAndre Ayton was tied for the player most likely to win the Rookie of the Year. Can he live up to the hype?
Phoenix Suns fans are trained to live with one particular disposition in regards to their beloved favorite franchise: an expectation to be disappointed.
Throughout history, whenever the Suns have gotten close; whenever they have had the star-caliber talent; whenever they have struck gold in the draft; there has always been that one lasting emotion that fans just can’t shake, that somehow, some way, fans will be disappointed.
And yet, the franchise and it’s fanbase are in uncharted territory at this point: never in history have the Suns drafted a player quite like Devin Booker, never have they had a potentially dominant, franchise big man, never have they drafted that big man, and never have they had the first overall pick.
Phoenix Suns
For 50 years everyone involved has wished for all of those instances to occur, and yet now they are all (potentially) happening, converging at the same moment in time.
While Devin Booker is at the heart of this potential change in the fortunes of the franchise, DeAndre Ayton is at the center, and not only do fans but the players themselves are well aware.
For the first time since NBA.com has begun to take these polls, a Phoenix Sun has never been named by the other rookies in his class as the player most likely to win the Rookie of the Year award. Albeit, Ayton was the first overall pick and he was a dominant center in college so the choice was pretty easy pickins, and to be fair he was also tied with Collin Sexton Jr. (honestly a surprise to me), as well as a historical poll low of only 18% of the vote, Ayton was still the selection, and players like Marvin Bagley III, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Wendell Carter Jr. didn’t even factor into the top-eight.
Regardless, of all the players with selections by his fellow rookies, Deandre Ayton was at the top of the poll and the overall feeling of excitement among fans is certainly palpable with the hope that he can live up to the Shaq/Kobe 2.0 moniker that Ayton himself referenced he could be if paired up with Booker.
All that being said, Phoenix Suns fans have the disposition to be disappointed and as exciting as it would be for Ayton and co. to pan out with he becoming the Rookie of the Year and the rest of the team taking that next step in the evolution of Phoenix Suns basketball, we just aren’t used to that kind of thing happened.
Granted, the franchise does have three Rookie’s of the Year in it’s history with Alvan Adams (’76), Walter Davis (’78), and Amar’e Stoudemire (’03), and of course have had a great number of very good teams with all of them having at least two stars on the roster dating from Connie Hawkins, Gail Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale through to the Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, and Dan Majerle years, and the Steve Nash, Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion teams, so it’s not like the idea of Booker, Ayton, and potentially Josh Jackson working out isn’t unfathomable.
Those historically good teams all had their moments, each made the playoffs, and generally lived up to the hype – although none of them were able to reach their ultimate goal.
Currently the Suns don’t really have any hype as they aren’t expected to do win a whole lot this season due to their age and the insane difficulty of the Western Conference.
However, as the first overall pick, Ayton brings with him a level of expectation that no rookie Suns player has ever had, and with it a hype that will be difficult to attain.
Don’t get me wrong, if the Suns aren’t any good and he has only a decent season, there won’t be a ton of resentment or worry because his poor production can ultimately be attributed to the team’s poor play. Even if he doesn’t average more than 14 points a game but proves that he can score over 20 points regularly and can grab 10 rebounds on any given night, then falling short in the Rookie of the Year balloting won’t be any cause for alarm.
However, now that he is squarely in the cross hairs of his peers while already felt keenly about by fans of the league and the Valley of the Suns in particular, if he is able to live up to the hype, we’ll all know very quickly if the Suns truly are on on the rise.
Living up to the hype as the number one overall pick of a franchise in desperate need of star power would be difficult for any player drafted onto any team in the situation the Phoenix Suns are in. He doesn’t have to do much this season to prove that he was worthy of the first selection, and if he can just show the flashes of brilliance that we all hope he will be capable of, the hype will be real, and it will lead to something spectacular.