DeAndre Ayton ‘More Likely’ to Leave Suns; How Mavs Can Pursue in Free Agency

It would be very difficult for the Mavs to end up with DeAndre Ayton as their offseason center upgrade, but it's possible.

The Dallas Mavericks are in need of an upgrade at the starting center position this summer. The easiest route to achieve this would be through a straight-up trade instead of free agency — something we’ve already analyzed with Myles Turner, Rudy Gobert and Richaun Holmes.

However, with the right salary cap maneuvering, could the Mavs potentially find a way to add Phoenix Suns’ DeAndre Ayton as Luka Doncic’s new big man?

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According to a report from The Athletic, Ayton’s time in Phoenix could be coming to an end just four seasons after he was draft No. 1 overall and two spots ahead of Doncic:

“Sources tell The Athletic that it’s ‘more likely than not’ that Ayton plays somewhere other than Phoenix next season.”

With Ayton being a restricted free agent, the only way the Mavs could get their foot in the door would be through a sign-and-trade. Given the Mavs’ salary cap situation, though — they’re a little more than $4 million over the luxury-tax line — it would be tough to execute. It’s not impossible, but the Mavs would have to dump some salary before attempting to work something out with Ayton… and then you have the issue of presenting an offer that the Suns are willing to accept after that.

“If not the Pistons, the other two strong fits I see for Ayton are in Portland and San Antonio,” said John Hollinger. 

“Portland, again, would almost certainly be through a sign-and-trade given the Blazers’ current cap situation; the Spurs have the cap room to sign Ayton outright but a sign-and-trade — for, say, Jakob Poeltl and Keldon Johnson — would seem a more likely endgame.”

If an NBA player wants to play for a particular team, that player typically gets his wish. Ayton has always been friendly with Doncic, party because they share Billy Duffy as an agent.

As tough as it might be for Dallas to pull off a move like this one, sometimes all it takes is getting a “yes” from a star player to get the creative salary cap juices flowing.