Phoenix Suns: Deandre Ayton looks like a big plus on defense

Phoenix Suns first overall pick Deandre Ayton was written off by some people as a poor defender, but so far, he looks like a big plus on defense.

There was so much worry coming into the season about whether Phoenix Suns rookie center Deandre Ayton would be able to play defense. He wasn’t known as a stellar defender coming out of Arizona, but he was also stuck in the middle of a lazy zone defense, where he had little chance to make an impact on that end of the floor.

For some, especially in the advanced stats section of NBA Twitter, Ayton’s low block percentage in college, without context, was enough to write him off as a bad defender. That was foolish. Throughout the preseason and in his first real NBA game, Deandre Ayton looks like a more than capable defender.

Ayton has always had the physical tools to be a good defender, which is why it never made sense to assume he wouldn’t be one. It’s not just his athleticism, coordination, and timing to come challenge shots from the weak side, it’s his ability to switch out to the perimeter and use his lateral agility to stay in front of guards. Physically, he can do it all.

Against the Dallas Mavericks on opening night, Ayton showed all of that. He looked comfortable defending away from the basket, and he affected numerous shots around the rim. He’s still far from perfect when it comes to positioning, but those mistakes were much less frequent than what could be expected out of a young rookie center who is used to a zone defense.

One thing we didn’t get to see much from Ayton was his one on one post defense. This is generally a much less useful skill than rotations and rim protection since post ups have become so uncommon. But DeAndre Jordan doesn’t do much out of post ups, so we didn’t really find out how well Ayton handles them.

On Saturday night, the Phoenix Suns take on the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic will challenge Deandre Ayton defensively in every possible way, including some post ups mixed in throughout the game. It’ll be a big test for the young center. Hopefully he’s up to the task.