Deandre Ayton Silences Critics With Dominant Outing vs. Nets
The NBA trade deadline is just one day away, and the Phoenix Suns have some business to attend to.
The organization still hopes to deal power forward Jae Crowder in their efforts to push themselves into a deep postseason run. Yet Crowder isn't the only name that has circulated in trade talks.
Suns center Deandre Ayton is - for better or worse - one of the more polarizing players this side of the Mississippi River. Ayton comes as the franchise's lone No. 1 pick in Phoenix's history and has offered both the brightest of days and the lowest of low, on and off the court.
Ayton tested the waters of restricted free agency last summer but was ultimately brought back by the Suns. Part of the offer sheet Phoenix matched included a no-trade clause on Ayton's end for the first year of his deal, yet that hasn't stopped rumors circulating around his name, especially with names such as Kyrie Irving and potentially Kevin Durant available.
That apparently hasn't stopped interested teams, either.
Ayton has been the topic of many things: rumors, criticism, anything in between.
Yet it was his play in Tuesday night's 116-112 win over the Brooklyn Nets that was the talk of the NBA world before LeBron James broke the league's all-time scoring record. His 35 points was a season-high and gave Ayton his first back-to-back 30+ point games of his career.
After the game, he spoke with The Arizona Republic's Duane Rankin and said he's been focused on blocking out the noise.
"I see what the people say about me. I had a bad start to the season man, where if it wasn't ankle injuries it was some other crap that got in my way," said Ayton.
"It was more of a adversity type of season for me. It showed what type of player I truly am and me just sticking with it, just blocking out all the noise and haters and all that stuff - just getting back to the things I do best, and that's just being dominant."
Ayton has (and will continue) to be the subject of plenty of discussions around the Suns until Phoenix is finally able to push themselves over the championship hump. That's the reality of a top pick that has admittedly been up and down for most of his career.
Yet on nights like Tuesday, Ayton flashed the man everybody in the Valley knows and hopes he can become on a nightly basis moving forward.
