Deandre Ayton appreciation post

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We should invest in a big man coach for DA. He's obviously super skilled. I don't love his lack of opportunities on the offensive end, but hopefully Chauncey and the team can get better with that. Would love to get a coach to teach him to be more physical despite his smooth touch.
 
AmirIcon said:
We should invest in a big man coach for DA. He's obviously super skilled. I don't love his lack of opportunities on the offensive end, but hopefully Chauncey and the team can get better with that. Would love to get a coach to teach him to be more physical despite his smooth touch.
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Scoot will fix the problem.
 
So... can Ayton's career be turned around, or is it on a downward spiral? If we had a PG that just fed him every play down the court would it make a difference, or is he just afraid of contact?
 
He's definitely not playing bad but far away from the center we'd like. I wouldn't hesitate on drafting Sarr, with or without Ayton.
 
I see Ayton in the paint all the time. Right at the rim. I don’t see him shying away from contact. We had LMA for how many years and that dude was allergic to the post. You’d think Portland fans would be able to tell the difference. It’s not Ayton’s fault that the refs don’t call shit.
 
I definitely think having a PG out there would benefit him greatly.
But what's funny is, for the past few years, it seems a lot of PHX fans talked about how what they really needed him to be was what he essentially is for us currently. Low usage big focusing on defense and rebounding. He's been great for us in that regard. Highest DRB% in the league, highest TRB% of his career, and double his career steal%. Has the second lowest DRTG of his career. We are 9th in the league in DRTG, at 111.2. And his rating is at 106!
I don't like the pick he sets, and his seemingly small hands. But he's doing what we should want out of our C, currently. It'd look a lot better if we had Simons out there to help with more of the offensive load, and Scoot to help with more playmaking for him. But overall, I'm pretty happy with what he's giving us right now.
 
Well Suns fans can fuck off. Nurk has had a couple of very good games and some where they got baby Nurk. They need a scapegoat. It's not at all clear the KD-Booger-Beal trio is really going to work well enough to beat DEN.
 
Cugel said:
Well Suns fans can fuck off. Nurk has had a couple of very good games and some where they got baby Nurk. They need a scapegoat. It's not at all clear the KD-Booger-Beal trio is really going to work well enough to beat DEN.
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They’re leaning hard on some dudes that are injured all the time.
 
Ayton's FT numbers are a bit of an aberration this year. He's shot 5 in 11 games; Lillard has shot 91 in 9 games....yeeeeesh!

but Ayton has never been good at getting to the FT line. He might be one of the worst big men in the league at getting to the line. His career FT rate is .209. That's extremely weak for a C. Compare him to Nurkic (which seems appropriate) at a career rate of .378 (Dame's career rate is .349)

career FT Rate:

Gobert .719
Embiid .504
Jarrett Allen .472
Steven Adams .441
AD .409
Zubac .408
Nurkic .378
Sabonis .375
Capela .338
Valunciunas .331
KAT .324
Jokic .318
B. Lopez .300
Ayton .209

Obviously, getting to the line isn't the end-all/be-all number for C's. I'd argue it's one of the more important impact stats; but there are several. I'd also wonder if it's a significant reveal about a player's aggressiveness. Of course, getting to the FT line is only part of the equation. When a C gets to the line, he needs to convert and some of them don't convert well. Ayton's career FT rate is 75.7% which is pretty good. There may be a stat that gauges FT conversion rate as part of FT rate but I haven't seen it

continuing Ayton vs Nurkic in career numbers:

rebound rate: Ayton 18.8%....Nurkic 19.4%
def. rebound rate: Ayton 26.9%....Nurkic 27.6% (Ayton leads the NBA right now at 32.2%)
assist rate: Ayton 8.4%....Nurkic 15.1%
block rate: Ayton 18.8%....Nurkic 19.4%

blocks are only a part of defense for big men. They don't necessarily reflect rim protection and overall defense. I'd still give Nurkic an edge on defense, but I think it's a smaller edge than I anticipated. I'd also give Nurkic a pretty sizable edge in setting screens although that might be, in part, a coaching thing, and a lead guard thing

the biggest two complaints about Nurkic were his inconsistency and his terrible conversion rate at the rim (for a C). One night, Nurk was the Bosnian Beast; the next night, the Bosnian Baby; the night after that, the Bosnian Buffoon. Ayton has been pretty inconsistent for Portland so far in a tiny 11 game sample size. But he was fairly consistent in Phoenix

Ayton's career at-the-rim FG% is .762; Nurkic's is .610. That's a huge difference. Here's the thing though, for his career 41.3% of his shots have come at the rim. This season, only 22.1% of his shots have come at the rim. That's a huge difference as well. Now, likely a significant part of that was playing with Chris Paul. But, I have serious doubts about Billups as a coach. I have even more doubts about Billups being able to maximize Ayton's skills
 
wizenheimer said:
career FT Rate:

Gobert .719
Embiid .504
Jarrett Allen .472
Steven Adams .441
AD .409
Zubac .408
Nurkic .378
--------------
Sabonis .375
Capela .338
Valunciunas .331
KAT .324
Jokic .318
B. Lopez .300
Ayton .209

Obviously, getting to the line isn't the end-all/be-all number for C's. I'd argue it's one of the more important impact stats...
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I'm puzzled by that conclusion. Split that list in half, and I think the bottom half is superior to the top half. That implies that FT rate is one of the least important stats for modern centers.
 
How do they calculate free throw rate? Fts/minutes played?
 
handiman said:
I'm puzzled by that conclusion. Split that list in half, and I think the bottom half is superior to the top half. That implies that FT rate is one of the least important stats for modern centers.
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1. Defense
2. Rebounding

Those are the top two areas where Ayton can help the team. He's been doing well there, especially with a more-complete roster.

I don't understand looking at his free-throw rate and fixating on that, which some people are doing.
 
Natebishop3 said:
I don’t buy this shit. People slap the fuck out of him and the refs don’t call it. He’s in the paint constantly.
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I'd like to see all of those plays where people slap at him from some different angles. It can be hard to see all the slap fouls that happen.
 
Natebishop3 said:
I don’t buy this shit. People slap the fuck out of him and the refs don’t call it. He’s in the paint constantly.
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Also, because when he goes up strong the refs don't call the constant contact DA does the right thing and then takes hooks and fadeaways to avoid the contact. There are plenty of no calls that I've seen every game that should have been put DA at the line but at some point he has to do the smart thing at least most of the time.

Between the way they call the game for Ayton in the paint and Shaedon it's obvious that the refs see us as a rebuilding team that doesn't matter and therefore they don't have to pay attention when we have the ball. I'm not saying the refs do this on purpose it just happens naturally because our games aren't seen as competitive and therefore even the refs are checked out. On the flip side the games we play do matter to the record of teams vying for the playoffs so when they have the ball the refs are more checked in.
 
blazerfan11 said:
1. Defense
2. Rebounding

Those are the top two areas where Ayton can help the team. He's been doing well there, especially with a more-complete roster.

I don't understand looking at his free-throw rate and fixating on that, which some people are doing.
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If anything, it kind of makes sense why his FT rate is that low. From what I’ve seen, all of DA’s decisions with his touches have been quick and/or deliberate. When he catches the ball on the elbow, it’s almost always a quick jumper that may take one or two jab steps, and he makes those on the regular. When he gets the ball on the block against a smaller guy, it’s 1-3 back down dribbles and throwing up a quick jump hook. When he gets a board or steal, he looks ahead or the outlet (the assist for the Shae and-1 off a steal comes to mind off the top of my head). A few of his other buckets come off hustle plays.

I’m very happy with what I’ve seen so far from DA. Not taking up a lot of clock, still being a threat, and doing all the things PHX asked of him.
 
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Regarding DA’s FT rate, I would say that if this team really wanted to get DA more FTs, they should actively seek out mismatches in the post. If the team found a way to get DA 2 post touches per quarter with a smaller guy on him, I’m betting that he would convert on over half of them and get fouled on a lot of the occasions that he doesn’t make the basket.

The problem is, the team isn’t good enough shooting the ball yet. When Ant and Brogdon come back and guys like Thybulle and Walker continue to improve their shooting, this is something I’d like for the team to implement. No gripe with his FT rate for me, BUT giving DA more opportunities to get us free points with the clock stopped would help this team greatly.

I really don’t even think there is much effort into tweaking the game plan a little bit to incorporate DA more so he can average 20ppg.
 
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