Deandre Ayton and Nikola JokicAAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post
DENVER—Deandre Ayton’s raw stat line from Tuesday’s 118-102 loss to the Denver Nuggets didn’t look like much.
Fourteen points on 7-of-12 shooting, nine rebounds, two steals and one block.
For a guy tasked with defending arguably the best basketball player in the world, that’s decent production. His assignment will certainly be exhausting, though perhaps not as exhausting as his minutes on the Phoenix Suns bottom line in this series.
Ayton is a minus-21 on Tuesday, tying his series low. His high-water mark in the plus-minus column against Denver was a zero.
And in all five games, Phoenix lost in his 148 minutes by 59 points (or 19.1 points per 48 minutes). That’s bad. In fact, that’s borderline irreparable.
On the other hand, Ayton’s backup, Jock Landale, was plus-five on Tuesday and now plus-27 in his 74 minutes.
His basic production for the series—26 points on 11/18 FGs and 21 rebounds—pales in comparison to Ayton’s—54 points on 26/45 FGs and 41 rebounds. But this version of the Suns doesn’t really need basic production from the 5 spot.
Despite what it sounds like, Phoenix needs things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
That got a lot of filling in from Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Even without Chris Paul, there’s plenty of use to be had at the top of the roster. Those two averaged over 20 shots per game. And in Phoenix, the Suns averaged 125 points. Throughout the postseason, they were third in points per 100 possessions.
With two of the best isolation and pick-and-roll scorers in basketball operating from the perimeter, Phoenix doesn’t really need a face-up 5.
That’s what Ayton is, and his contributions are hard to find after that.
What the Suns lacked in those minutes was relentless defense, effort on the glass and opportunistic scoring.
Landale checked the boxes.
Nobody can stop Nikola Jokić, but Landale at least makes him feel. He fought. He looked for hits on Jokić’s backdowns and did his best to return some fire. For the series, the two-time MVP shot 50 percent from the field when defended by Landale, which was a big step up from his regular-season field-goal percentage of 63.2 or the 59.3 he shot against Let’s go to this series.
Until the rebound, Landale pounded the paint like a sledgehammer. Against the typical bench lineups he faced, Denver couldn’t stop him from grabbing or influencing rebounds, despite sending multiple players to box him out. For the series, he nearly doubled Ayton’s offensive rebounding percentage.
And again, on a team with Durant and Booker (and when he’s healthy, CP3), that’s the only real source of creativity a big can provide. Landale provided it. Let’s not.
If that leads to put-back opportunities, great. If it leads to more shots for superstars, so much the better.
To Ayton’s credit, in the face of criticism and comparisons to Landale, he turned his back on his teammate, even though his minutes were limited.
Gerald Bourguet @Gerald Bourguet
“It hurts me to hear about everyone mocking him non-stop.”
I asked Jock Landale about Deandre Ayton offering him words of advice despite being benched late in Game 3, and he continued all-time to rave about DA as a teammate and player: pic.twitter.com/ORYjnhAl4S
But that doesn’t change the reality of the plus-minus column. That will require a different level of energy from Ayton.
“They were more physical than us from the start.” Booker said to reporters after the game. Coach Monty Williams echoed the sentiment, saying they haven’t found anyone to take away from physicality.
Booker and Williams, of course, aren’t directly referring to Ayton, but he’s the starting point of a perimeter-oriented team. It is up to him to establish the tone. Or, it is up to him to destroy the tone established by the opposition. Overall, Ayton didn’t do either.
And if this continues, and the Suns don’t have their ultimate goal (which, from the moment they get KD, should be a championship), they’ll have tough questions to ask about Ayton.
If a future led by Booker and Durant doesn’t require a face-up 5 (it doesn’t), how can Phoenix justify fully committing to the four-year, $133 million deal he signed last summer?
When you get more effort and more worth from someone like Landale, who made less than $1 million this season, you almost have to gauge the trade market for Ayton.
Of course, it’s too early to go down that road completely. This series isn’t over yet, and it’s coming back to Phoenix.
But if the Suns can’t win the next two, most of the numbers point one way.
