Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it is hard to know which situation the Phoenix Suns messed up worse. Using the first overall pick in the 2018 draft on center Deandre Ayton, and passing on Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic. Or trading Ayton for a package including Jusuf Nurkic, and which ended with Grayson Allen being the best and most reliable guy they got back.
Not that the Portland Trail Blazers don't have their own regrets. They might have won the trade that netted them Ayton by dumping Nurkic in the process, but they also cut ties with him this offseason by buying him out of his contract. This allowed him to join forces with Doncic of all people on the Los Angeles Lakers, with a 40-year-old LeBron James on that roster as well.
Charles Barkley believes Ayton will bounce back this season.
Few Suns' legends are as beloved as Charles Barkley - and even though he often puts his foot in his mouth with his predictions - The Valley listens along all the same. Barkley was a guest on The Bill Simmons Podcast on The Ringer recently, and he predicted a massive season is incoming for the 27-year-old.
Barkley's argument being that guys who will be free agents the following season and who do not have a clear path in the league often ball out, so as to secure their next bag and a spot on another franchise in the league. Barkley has got that part right, but the funny thing in all of this is how he is so often a jinx, with the opposite thing happening to what he predicts.
If Ayton does bomb with the Lakers - and there's every chance that he will - it will make Suns fans feel that little bit better about how it all went down with him. It's not even about wishing ill on the player himself, he was instrumental in the Suns reaching the NBA Finals in 2021 and was the defensive anchor that they have not come close to replicating since.
But any chance to get one over on those Lakers is welcomed, and they need Ayton to produce at a high level if they are to have any shot at all in a loaded Western Conference this season. Only we've seen from the end of his tenure in Phoenix - as well as some of his exploits in Portland - that when Ayton checks out, he really checks out. Barkley continues to help the Suns all these years later.