Ayton has contract offer with Pacers
The Suns have two days to match the largest offer sheet in NBA history and keep Ayton, or let him go to the Pacers for nothing in return.
Ayton’s offer sheet trumps the four-year, $107 million deal signed by Otto Porter Jr. with the Brooklyn Nets in 2017, a deal the Washington Wizards ultimately matched. Once Ayton signs the offer sheet with Indiana no more sign-and-trade deals are allowed.
If the Suns match the offer sheet, they can’t trade Ayton until at least Jan. 15, and they won’t be able to trade him to Indiana for a year.
Namakian of Innovate Sports and Duffy of BDA Sports and WME had insisted to the Suns that they could find a max contract offer for Ayton on the market and are now delivering it with the offer sheet.
The Suns had never made Ayton an offer, suggesting they didn’t value him as a max player. If they don’t match the sheet, the Suns will lose their 2018 first-round pick without compensation.
The largest offer sheet signed by a team without being matched was when Harrison Barnes was signed by the Dallas Mavericks for four years and $94.4 million in 2016, the same summer Barnes’ former team, the Golden State Warriors, signed Kevin Durant as a free agent.
Ayton, who turns 24 next week, was drafted with the first pick in the 2018 draft out of Arizona, part of a star-studded draft class that included Luka Doncic (third), Jaren Jackson Jr. (fourth), Trae Young (fifth) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (11th).
After making the All-Rookie first team in 2019, Ayton has developed into a quality starting center, averaging 16.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game while helping anchor Phoenix’s defense during its run to the 2021 NBA Finals, the first time the franchise has reached the league championship round since Charles Barkley charged the Suns there in 1993.
Ayton averaged 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds last season, shooting 63.4 percent from the field and 74.6 percent from the free throw line.
After an outstanding regular season, which ended with the best record in the league, Phoenix’s postseason ended with a crushing loss to the Mavericks in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals, a game that Ayton spent most of the second half on the bench.
When asked why that happened after the game, Suns coach Monty Williams said, “It’s an internal thing.” Meanwhile, Ayton declined to speak to reporters after the game. Indiana traded Malcolm Brogdon earlier this offseason and Domantas Sabonis last season, moving into a new era centered on a young, exciting back line headlined by rising star Tyrese Haliburton and rookie Bennedict Mathurin, the sixth pick in last month’s NBA Draft.
