Beijing time on April 20, the Sun at home again to meet the Pelicans, because Booker was injured in the third quarter of the game, and finally the Sun lost this game, after the game, some media exposed Booker's injury is not optimistic, it is likely to miss this round of the series, which for the Sun, the next schedule will be very difficult.
Now that Paul is 36 years old, although he played a very good performance in the last game, this game also won the 17+14 data, if you want to win the Pelicans to survive the first round, the Sun must have others to stand up, many fans began to discuss Ayton, after all, it is the birth of the champion, when the team needs help, it is definitely going to take on greater responsibility.
Looking at Ayton's performance in these two games, although in the first game, Ayton scored a comprehensive statistic of 21 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 blocks, but the tough attitude on the inside line was not fully shown, you know, the Pelicans' Varan got 25 rebounds in the first game, and had 13 frontcourt rebounds, which is indeed very ironic for Ayton on the inside.
Similarly, in this game, Ayton's performance is not very good, in the last 33 minutes of 6 shots 4, got 10 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, but in this game, Ayton's plus-minus of -13, the lowest in the whole team, and many of Ayton's offenses are relying on Paul to feed the cake, the autonomous offense is almost zero, such a performance, want to get a big contract, it is very difficult, after all, the team has Paul such an excellent point guard, did not play a good performance, it should not be, You should know that the Clippers' little Jordan was also fed to the All-Star by Paul.
Last season, Ayton followed the Suns to the Finals, and his performance in the Finals was remarkable, while the off-season and the Suns were in a stalemate when negotiating a contract extension, and at that time, the same year, Trae Young and Doncic had already received the top salary, and Ayton, as the champion, failed to complete the renewal with the team. What was even more surprising was that the Suns completed contract extensions with bridges and Paul of the team at that time, except that only Ayton did not get a contract.
According to the analysis of the media at the time, a large part of the reason why the Suns failed to complete the renewal of Ayton's contract was due to the impact of the small-ball era, the center forward players were not well received, and Ayton's style of play was soft, and the Suns expected Ayton to become a top center like Jokic and Embiid.
Of course, on the other hand, Booker's injury may have given Ayton a chance, after all, the playoffs are the stage for superstars, from Edwards to Jordan Poole to today's Ingram, in the first playoffs have a very good performance, Ayton as a representative of young centers, must play a good performance, not to mention fighting for the team's victory, even for his next contract, Ayton must come up with a good performance, after all, is his contract year.
If in the next game, Ayton still can't perform well, then it can basically be announced that he is out of contract with the big contract.