It’s up to head coach Monty Williams to ease the apparent tension between Deandre Ayton and the Suns, argues Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. In addition to being involved in trade rumors for Kevin Durant, Ayton was forced to find a maximimum-salary deal from a rival team — he signed an offer sheet with the Pacers, which the Suns quickly matched.
Ayton said he hadn’t spoken to Williams since Phoenix’s Game 7 blowout loss to Dallas in the second round of last season’s playoffs, when he had a disagreement with Williams after being pulled early. Williams downplayed the severity of not speaking to Ayton over the offseason, but it was an awkward way to spend Media Day, Bourguet writes.
That’s not to say everything is on Williams, since the speculation and business side of things were out of his control, but there’s still no excuse for him to not speak to his young starting center who clearly hasn’t gotten over the incident, according to Bourguet, who calls Williams’ lack of one-on-one communication with Ayton “cruelly intentional at worst and a miscalculation that needs to be promptly amended at best.”
There’s still time for Williams to resolve the situation with Ayton before it impacts the season, says Bourguet.
Here’s more on the Suns:
- Williams would prefer the Suns to move Jae Crowder before their regular season tips off on October 19, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. “We’ve done a decent job of acclimating guys into the program and that’s a credit to the coaches, but also the players that help guys along once we get new people in here,” Williams said. “I’m not so much worried about the timeline. Ideally, you’d like to get someone in here before opening night, but I like the group we have.”
- Cameron Johnson will be Phoenix’s new starting power forward, Williams confirmed to reporters (Twitter link via Rankin). The coach spoke glowingly about Johnson’s game, but mentioned he needs to “draw the line in the sand” when it comes to defense. For his part, Johnson says he needs to “rebound a lot better than I have my first couple years” and defend at a higher level (Twitter links courtesy of Bourguet).
- Chris Paul says Jock Landale is making a strong impression in training camp both on and off the court, Bourguet tweets. “Jock’s been a great, not only basketball player, but a good guy to be around,” Paul said. Joe Ingles put Paul in contact with Landale over the summer. The Australian big man’s contract is only guaranteed for $46K in 2022/23.
Completely agree on Monty. Frankly, I find it completely unprofessional for a head coach to not reach out once during the offseason, but especially in light of the way last season ended and the rumors that have swirled. It’s their job to manage player relationships, and it feels like Monty simply doesn’t want to put effort into that part of his responsibilities.
The Suns have a ton of talent, but behind the scenes there are fissures and I think some of them stem from having Monty at the helm. Something just seems off in Phoenix. But as they say, winning cures all wounds.
I can see Phoenix and DeAndre Ayton parting ways after this season.
This is the type of situation that a team like Utah will be monitoring closely. Ayton is already signed to a max deal. Utah has the ability to outbid pretty much every other team if they desire. The Pacers don’t have near the asset arsenal that Utah has to win this deal.
Phoenix should be monitoring the Chicago Bulls closely. If they start losing and begin to look like a rebuild candidate then DeMar DeRozan should be firmly on the Phoenix radar.
Suns may not be able to past first round playoffs
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In college, they described my basketball skills the same way they describe Jock Landale’s.., “he’s a good guy to be around.”
In fact one day after practice I was heaving balls towards the basket from half court and Coach yelled at me take some “game situation shots” instead.
I Shrugged my shoulders, walked over to the bench, sat down, and started taking shots from there.
It’s been nothing but negative news coming from the Phoenix Suns all summer long.
I totally get that they feel Johnson can start. And Frankly he’s earned it. Also Crowder can bring back a good asset player or pick. But this was not handled well. Crowder is a team guy. His success is based on team play. They are not giving him the proper respect.
Add the fact on how Williams and Suns treated Ayton. Then you have to wonder about their commitment to winning. Do they even understand how fragile this is. Throw in all the Owner stuff. And you start to wonder. The Suns are blowing this. IMO if they don’t win this yr. They are not coming back to a Finals with CP3. This is his last shot. Some teams, franchises just don’t get it.
Suns peaked and will only get worse
Could happen lol ….
Everyone relax on the negative narrative the media is creating. Suns will be fine. I’m sure Monty and Ayton will be fine. It’s like a stubborn kid mad at his dad. It works it’s self out. Monty is a great coach and he should have reached out to Ayton and congratulated him on his contract. Cam deserves to start now. Thx Jae for being a great Suns leader.
Monty just isn’t good enough to be a HC… his job has nothing to do with tactics, it’s all about managing his players… and boy does he suck at that!
The way he has treated Ayton is just disgraceful!
Monty must be fired!
In all honesty right now is 2 years too late for that, right?