Ayton Continuing to Improve
It is both easy and impossible to forget Deandre Ayton has only played a total of 23 games this season. While it is natural to point out his lack of consistent aggressiveness, pull your hair out, and complain he is not Luka Doncic, you can’t deny Ayton has improved upon his rookie season.
He is averaging roughly two more points and two more rebounds but has shown signs of becoming the dominating player everyone felt he could be.
Five times this season, Ayton has recorded at least 15 points and 15 rebounds in a game, most emphatically with a 26-21 game against the New York Knicks.
To put some perspective around that, Ayton has put up a 15-15 game 23 percent of the time he has stepped on the court this season.
That ain’t bad.
Hopefully, with an opportunity to play in twice the amount of games he has thus far, Ayton will continue to improve and continue to work on that consistent aggressiveness.
And hopefully, the Suns get some wins. Before the season, the Suns win total over/under was 29.5 games. That seems inevitable now, so much that the new over/under has been set at 32.5 wins.
That might not be the win total some fans saw after a 7-4 start, but it would undoubtedly be the “next step” so many fans wanted before the season started.