DEAL DONE: Trail Blazers head coach has sign 4 QBs that worth 900.5m and….
Even though the team is new, Deandre Ayton seems to be the same.
On Friday, Jason Quick of The Athletic published a negative article about big man Ayton of the Portland Trail Blazers. Ayton’s first few months in Portland, according to Quick, were “defined by tardiness and tantrums.” Quick compared Ayton to former Portland center Hassan Whiteside, a player with respectable numbers but inconsistent effort and a generally low effect on the team, even if he admitted that Ayton’s play has improved over the past month.
The Blazers acquired Ayton, the former first overall pick, in a three-way Damian Lillard trade with the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks during the summer. With his four-year, $132.9 million contract, it appears that he was more of a salary-match acquisition than a player Portland truly wanted as a long-term building component.
Ayton never lived up to his full potential in Phoenix and had a lot of problems there, even though the Suns were able to make it to the NBA Finals in 2021 with him starting at center. For the Blazers this season, Ayton, 25, is averaging 13.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. However, it seems that many of those same problems have followed Ayton to Portland (particularly in light of the fact that his greatest moment with the Blazers has arguably been one of his worst).
