Next season is make or break for Phoenix Suns 2018 draft class: Deandre Ayton

With one more year guaranteed for the 2018 draft class, what does Deandre Ayton need to do to take the next steps that lead to an extension with the Phoenix Suns?

After the 2018 draft where they landed #1 overall pick, Deandre Ayton, and two-time National Champion, Mikal Bridges, the Phoenix Suns looked to have their long-awaited franchise center and a 3-in-D wing to build around Devin Booker and Josh Jackson.

Just two seasons later, Luka Doncic is being hailed as the best player in the class, Josh Jackson is long gone, and while Devin Booker continues to grow into the star the franchise hoped, Ayton and Bridges still have question marks heading into their third year in the Association.

So, what has gone right and wrong for the duo and what do they need to do to take the next step in their careers and for the franchise? For this article, I’ll focus on Deandre Ayton.

Let’s face it, despite a nice step from year-one to year-two, Deandre Ayton is nowhere near where Phoenix Suns fans and front office had hoped he would be. Add in watching Luka Doncic (not to mention Trae Young) star for their respective teams with the ball in their hands, it becomes all the more disheartening in the Valley of the Sun.

But the reality is, the Suns already had a play-maker who demands the ball in Devin Booker, meaning the team needed and still needs Ayton to be someone different than the slick handling, distance shooting Doncic and Young. Rather the Suns need Ayton to be Hakeem Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, Shaq, a dominating big man who demands the ball in the block and makes team suffer no matter what they try.

Two seasons in, while we have seen glimpses of the potential Deandre Ayton is dripping with, we have yet to see it all come together consistently for Ayton to be the player he is capable of and frankly the Suns need. After an underwhelming rookie season where first-and-only-year head coach, Igor Kokoskov, tried to not overwhelm Ayton with too much, leaving many of his talents under-utilized.

Year-two for Ayton started out great as he had a double-double along with four blocks in an opening night victory over Sacramento. However, it would be 25 more games before Ayton would play again as he was suspended for failing a drug test. The team’s plan and the breakout everyone was looking for would have to wait as the frustration grew in the desert.

Ayton finally returned for what would be 29 more games in this coronavirus shortened season.

There were sometimes Ayton put things together, like his mid-to-late January run, where he had 26 points and 21 rebounds against the Knicks and then followed that up with 26 points and 15 rebounds versus the Celtics. Deandre also came up big in the match-up with the Mavericks, billed as the Ayton versus Doncic game. Doncic finished with 21 points and a -26 +/-, while Ayton had 31 points, 9 boards, and a +29 +/- rating.

More importantly for the Suns, they won all three of those games.

Ayton’s production doesn’t automatically equate to a Suns win, however. Deandre had 28 and 19 and 25 and 17 in losses to the Nuggets and Nets, but it is still great to see that production.

In his last 21 professional games, Ayton has scored at least 20 points in 13 of them and had more than 10 rebounds in 12 of them. Suddenly, the 20.6 and 13 averages over 36 minutes seem like a reachable regular-season total.

So, on the one hand, we have the growing production and understanding of the game and his fit-therein. On the other hand, we have a player with the ball in his hands a lot, without the best basketball IQ at this point. This means that sometimes high touches for Ayton equals more turnovers. Three of his six highest turnover games occurred since February of this year. Just as the team was able to overcome his seven turnovers with his 28/19 against the Bulls, they were not able to overcome his five turnovers despite the 28/19 evening against the Nuggets.

Beyond the turnovers, Ayton is still prone to daydreaming and looking a bit lackadaisical at time. What you have and get right now, is a young man who played most of this past season at 21, and who does not yet fully understand nor control all the skill and ability he was gifted with.

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Sure, there are things Ayton doesn’t do yet that drive us all crazy. He still finger-rolls or lays the ball up instead of slamming it down with Zion-like authority. At times he is still timid defensively and appears to be doing more watching than playing as the team does not dump the ball to him in the block. However, there are times when Ayton does look like the next coming of Hakeem, keeping the dream stays alive in Phoenix.

And that dream really is the key with Ayton. How he is spending his lockdown – beyond his NBA2K charity work with Booker – can be telling. Does Ayton come back from the lockdown and continue to grow like he did when he was out for 25 games? Can he continue to build that fire that burns so hot in the game’s brightest stars? Can he focus for 48 minutes a night to fully utilize his God-given ability? That is really the multi-million-dollar question. Is Ayton going to get a max contract or just a nice 8-figure a year contract to float around the league?

The bottom line is that Ayton isn’t quite where we want him to be yet, but another year of growth like what we saw in year-two in year-three playing a full 82 games or as many as they have on the schedule, and Deandre will earn a massive extension and the talk that Phoenix should have taken Doncic at #1 will subside as the center the Suns have always craved rises in the desert.