Suns General Manager James Jones has long held two things for the past year:
They did not want to sign Ayton to a designated rookie max FIVE year deal, as was demanded by his agent last summer. Jones mentioned being willing to discuss a three or four year deal, but not the five year deal. He mentioned the problems with designated rookie deals (can’t have more than two at a time, can’t have more than one who was traded), which only comes into play at the five-year-max level.
Always said Ayton was an important part of the team, and hoped they would find common ground on a contract.
Today, the Suns proved it by immediately matching the first offer sheet Ayton finally signed, which is only four years and therefore not a ‘designated rookie max’.
Why does that matter? Three reasons:
Booker is the other designated rookie max, and will remain so for the next two years until that deal expires (at which time he becomes a designated veteran max player).
Now the Suns can acquire a second designated rookie max contract WHILE keeping Ayton and Booker and any and all of his teammates
Now the Suns can trade Ayton, if they still want, between six months and two years from now to a team “like” the Nets who have already acquired another designated rookie max player and/or have two of them on the team already.
You say those two would never happen, right?
Yet, that’s a HUGE holdup right now in any Nets trade of Kevin Durant, because since they already have acquired Ben Simmons’ designated rookie max extension last season, they cannot now acquire any of about 15 other really good young players like Simmons (including Booker, Bam, and Donovan Mitchell) without trading Simmons away. And no one wants Simmons right now, I’ll tell you that.
These great young players do become available. In the last year alone, both Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell are being traded while on one of these contracts.
Imagine making Ayton and Booker their designated players, and knowing that the summer of 2023 is a bust because they can’t replace the aging Chris Paul with, say, De’Aaron Fox. Or another young ‘designated’ player who might hit the trading block.
But now, because Ayton is on a four-year, they CAN do that next year when it’s time to move on from Paul. Right now, if Paul falls off dramatically, they could stretch Paul’s $15 guaranteed million over five years and move their roster in a new direction at point guard. And now, that could potentially include a designated guy.
For now, Ayton is STAYING with the Suns. Guaranteed, he will be on the Suns roster through the new year, which will be about the first 30 games of the season. At minimum. Maybe for all four years!
Be happy, Suns fans.
And no, this does NOT take them out of the running for Kevin Durant. Makes it a bit harder, but certainly doable.
The Nets are going to have a very hard time acquiring an All-Star level player in exchange for Durant because of those restrictions I mentioned above. They can’t take on Donovan Mitchell, for example. Could very well be that Mikal Bridges is the best headliner they will get from a team for whom Kevin Durant would be happy to play.
