Suns Were Never Letting Deandre Ayton Walk
All offseason, the Phoenix Suns were at the helm of any rumor or report concerning free agency mostly thanks to the status of then-restricted free agent Deandre Ayton.
From a distance, Ayton last moments with the team would be the image of him sitting on the bench in Game 7's blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks at home, exchanging words with coach Monty Williams.
That came months after the Suns reportedly engaged in trade talks to ship him out at the trade deadline, and even further from when Phoenix and Ayton couldn't agree on a contract extension earlier in the season.
However, Ayton had a four-year, $133 million offer sheet matched from the Indiana Pacers, keeping him in Phoenix for the foreseeable future.
The offer sheet was matched within minutes, according to various insiders.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Suns general manager James Jones said the plan was always to bring Ayton back.
Suns Were Never Letting Deandre Ayton Walk
"Phoenix general manager James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately," said Marc Spears.
"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview with ESPN. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would.
"So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.
"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."
Now, Jones is able to retain his core group of players from the previous two seasons that have helped reinvigorate basketball fever in the Valley.
Jones and Suns fans across the globe hope another NBA Finals run is right around the corner with Ayton, but it appears Phoenix was never going to find out what their chances were without their only No. 1 pick in franchise history.
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