Suns’ Ayton ‘is going to be a handful’
Deandre Ayton stuffed the preseason stat sheet with 24 points, nine rebounds and three blocks and made his presence felt, but not everything went his way Monday night against Sacramento.
De’Aaron Fox rose up, double-clutched the and scored over the 7-footer in traffic.
Fellow rookie Marvin Bagley III rejected him in the paint.
Then, with Phoenix down a point late, Ayton got the ball on the high post and tried to drive on Bagley, but lost the ball, or got it blocked, with 44.3 seconds remaining.
That’s living and learning in the moment, but Ayton was thankful for the opportunity to win the game at the end. ball
“Just knowing that your team has trust in you. Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Ayton said. “Just polish your craft every day. Just being more confident in your game. Your teammates will have faith in you. Your coaches. Everybody.”
Devin Booker would likely have had that play ran for him, but he’s still out with an injured right hand.
So first-year head coach Igor Kokoskov, as he did in Saturday’s scrimmage, put the ball in Ayton’s hands to make a play — and he had 23 reasons to do so.
That’s how many points the No. 1 overall pick out of Arizona had going into that possession.
“I know he’s sure that he is pretty good, but he has to step up to the stage and kind of measure himself with other guys on the court,” Kokoskov said. “So if he starts playing and feels like, ‘Hey, I belong here and I can play against the best,’ his productivity, his game is going to be even better.”
The confident Ayton didn’t hang his head after the play. On the next possession, he drew a foul and made one of two free throws to pull the Suns to within two, down 102-100 with 17.4 seconds left.
Sacramento’s Yogi Ferrell split two free throws to push Sacramento’s lead to three, and Kokoskov called a timeout with 16 seconds left.
On the inbounds play, Troy Daniels managed to get off a contested 3-point try.
Daniels missed, but once again, Ayton was battling in the paint. He nearly came up with the offensive rebound, but never got full control of the ball as Kings rookie Wenyen Gabriel corralled the ball.
A double-double sounds nicer, but like the scrimmage, Ayton once again looked like Phoenix’s best player with Booker still out.
“Ayton is going to be really good,” Sacramento coach Dave Joerger said. “He’s going to be a tough deal for the next 10 to 12 years.”
Ayton also blocked three shots and defended the paint well, shouting out instructions.
“It’s hard to take him off the court as an opposing team coach because he defends the pick-and-roll really well, I think,” Joerger continued. “So you can’t take advantage of him that way. He’s switchable, he can show. So he’s going to be a handful in areas that not a lot of people are talking about.”
Ayton admitted being nervous before the game and dancing in the locker room to get “all my butterflies out.” He tried to act tough for the team veterans, but Ayton was excited and eager to play well.
“Just really wanted to dial in with everything Coach taught us, vets taught me and just put it on the floor right away,” he said. “That was my job. Trying to win because that’s I want to do for this organization.”
Ayton did have a scare, tweaking his knee as he tried to catch a lob pass from Josh Jackson one-handed, but he walked it off and returned to the game.
Like the two showed in the scrimmage, Ayton and Jackson have developed early chemistry on the play.
“He’s so tall and so athletic that I just throw it up there and somehow, he just goes and gets it,” Jackson said.
Five of Jackson’s six assists Monday night led to buckets for Ayton with two of the alley-oop variety.
“That man is big on his bigs rolling to the basket,” Ayton said. “It’s like, as soon as I screen, the ball is in the air and I just got to go get it. That’s just Josh. He will find you every time.”
It may look as if Jackson is just throwing it up to Ayton, but he’s not.
Jackson’s reading the defense to make the right play, but more times than not, he’s going to give his big man a dunk opportunity that’ll get the crowd going as it did Monday night.
“I’ve been knowing this kid since I was a freshman in high school,” Jackson said. “… When I’m coming down the lane and I know he’s on the side rolling to the basket, it’s a pretty easy decision for me.”
Ayton went 30 minutes and 10 seconds of game time without committing a turnover, to which he credits his conditioning. He shot 9-of-16 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.
“Coach didn’t really want to overwork us,” Ayton said. “He just really wanted us to get a feel. I had a lot of fun, especially when you work so hard in the offseason and get yourself in NBA-ready shape. You have a lot of fun when you’re not fatigued.”
Before the game, Kokoskov said he wasn’t going to play the starters more than 15 minutes, but the extra time on the floor didn’t fatigue Ayton.
Going through training camp in Flagstaff’s high altitude might have had something to do with it, too.
“That training camp was hell,” Ayton said. “It was good hell. I don’t know if there’s any such thing as good hell, but it was good hell and it got me in shape big time. So, I’m in tip top shape.”