The 10 Greatest Suns in history, ranked by Player Efficiency Rating (PER)

8. Deandre Ayton - 20.5

Believe us when we say, we're as surprised as you are by this one. But if you look back on the tenure of Deandre Ayton with the Suns with as unbiased a view as you can, then you'll see that for a while there he was the correct selection as their big man of the future, and one who was also able to help them in the immediacy.

It is fair to point out that Ayton likely benefitted from playing with Paul for a lot of his time in The Valley, But so did so many players, with even Bismack Biyombo looking like a world-beater in the two-man game with Paul at times. Ayton was also the anchor of a defensive unit that made it all the way to the finals, and that is not nothing either.

Nowadays a section of the fanbase would much rather have former head coach Monty Williams back over the current choice in Frank Vogel, while Ayton rarely gets spoken about. His career has taken a massive step back since being traded to the Portland Trail Blazers last summer, to the point the Suns absolutely won the trade by getting back a package centered around Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen.

But there was a time there where he was giving the Suns 18 points and 11 boards per night, even if he wasn't always outwardly happy about his situation. Being taken over Luka Doncic and Trae Young doesn't help his cause, and Ayton was a difficult personality to get behind. His positioning on this list really just shows what could have been.