On April 30, Beijing time, the First Round of the Playoffs Suns finally defeated the Pelicans 4-2 by a large score, and their opponent in the next round will be doncic's Lone Rangers. A contest between two top point guards, this set of duels is bound to be exciting.
The old cannon really wants to win, and yesterday the G6 Sao Paulo led the team to win 14 of 14 and broke the NBA playoff record. Today, according to Brian Windhorst, during the first round of the away game against the Pelicans, Paul set a curfew for the whole team! He arranged rooms for his teammates and watched the other post-season games together. And this decision was not arranged by the coaching staff.
Fans have said that this also proves that Paul really wants to win this year, he is desperate to win the championship, he knows how to restrain himself and lead his teammates. Paul's move was intended to ensure that the team could concentrate on the road trip, especially in Booker's absence. Some netizens also joked: Paul this is obviously a shadow left in the rocket period. Ha Someone: You directly reported that I got my ID card.
Referring to that year's light bulb combination, the Warriors recently answered a question from netizens and said: "My favorite round of the series is that we beat the Rockets in 2019. The year before Paul had been injured, they said they had lost without Paul. The next year KD was injured and they still lost. ”
The 2018 Western Conference Finals Rockets lost 3-4 to the Warriors, and the 2019 Western Conference Semifinals Rockets lost 2-4 to the Warriors. I have to say that the fire war in those years was really wonderful.
In this series between the Pelicans and The Suns, Booker suffered an injury, and Paul can say that he carried the team on his shoulders, but don't forget to honor Ayton, who also has a lot of credit. As one of the core characters of the team, in the first round of the playoffs, Ayton played 6 games, averaged 35 minutes per game, and could contribute 20.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.7 steals, 1.2 blocks, 70% shooting percentage and 50% three-point shooting!
During the regular season, Ayton averaged 29.5 minutes per game, contributing 17.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists, compared to the playoffs, scoring and assists except rebounds. Take a look back at Ayton's performances in these six games.
G1: 21 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists: 4 blocks, G2:10 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, G3:28 points, 17 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 block, G4:23 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, G5:19 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, G6:12 shooting, 22 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block!
According to statistics, Ayton became the first player in playoff history to contribute at least 20+ and shoot at least 70% of the time in a series of at least 6 games in one round.
Paul was 14 of 14 in the last game and 10 of 12 in Ayton! The two of them also became the second pair of teammates in playoff history to shoot 10 goals on the same field with at least 80% shooting, the last pair being O'Neal and Jason Williams!
What everyone is most concerned about now is, with Ayton's performance, how big a contract will the Suns give him next season? Ayton's current contract is $40.37 million for four years, signed in the summer of 2018 and expiring in the summer of 2022. Ayton's salary this season is $12.63 million.
Last offseason, many rookies in the class of 2018 got early contract extensions, including Doncic, Trae Young and others, as the head of that session, Ayton also wanted to finalize a maximum salary contract with the Suns, but the management refused to provide the corresponding contract, and the team never thought that Ayton was a top salary player. So Ayton was very unhappy.
According to previous reports, Ayton can complete an early contract extension with the team and get a 5-year, $170 million maximum salary contract! Last year's Western Conference finals Ayton everyone has seen, the young man can be said to have played a price, if this year continues to play steadily, the Suns this contract should be given. Even if the Suns are reluctant to give Ayton this maximum salary contract, I believe other teams will compete to give it.
Finally, how do you evaluate Ayton's performance in the first round of the playoffs, and how big a contract do you think he can get?