Less than 48 hours after the NBA free agent trading market opened, the league's teams continued to move, and Ayton's contract extension tug-of-war with the Suns finally had a "major breakthrough". According to a report from NBA star Keith Smith, sources revealed that the Suns have provided Ayton with a one-year, $16.4 million qualification offer, and he will become a restricted free agent after the free market opens. Ayton is the first person in NBA history to receive a qualification offer, and the amount of this qualification offer is a new NBA record. What is the concept of $16.4 million? The contract for the last year of 2022 is almost 16 million US dollars! The Sun is humiliating Ayton, but they are just following the rules, and Ayton can only find reasons in himself.
Tang Tangyuan Lang, watching the contract expire and become a free body but could not get the contract he liked, Ayton's dark and mature face could not hide the pain and panic in his heart. Since entering the offseason, the attitude of the Ayton team has been very clear, either the Suns have given me a five-year , $173.2 million maximum salary contract, or I've gone to other teams to fight for a four-year , $137 million top salary contract. And the Suns? They were an iron rooster, and I let the Ayton team cry twice and hang themselves. On the one hand, the Suns made it clear that they were only willing to offer Ayton a long contract below the maximum salary; The Suns, on the other hand, took a fluke and gambled that no team in the free market would offer Ayton a maximum-salary contract.
The Suns' small abacus is very clever, and the teams that have the salary space to sign Ayton are gradually retreating. Take Ayton's potential front-runner Pistons, who have cleared enough salary space to provide Ayton with a four-year, $137 million long contract. However, the Pistons' priority is not to rise, but to cultivate young talents! The 21st Champion Cunningham, the 22nd No. 5 Show Ive and the 22nd No. 13 Show Durham are the future of the team, and the Pistons have no energy and no need to sign a maximum salary contract to sign Aibao, who still needs to be vigorously developed. According to Pistons reporter James Edwards, even if the team has the space to offer a top-salary contract, the Pistons are unlikely to satisfy Ayton, who prefers to maintain the flexibility of the salary space.
Ayton hit a wall everywhere, and if he wants to trace the source, he can only blame his own strength and the gap between the top salary contract - if Ayton plays the level of the maximum salary inside line, the Suns will not delay watching Ayton and other teams close; If Ayton shows the potential to grow into a top-paying interior, teams with salary space such as the Pistons and Spurs will not snub him in the name of "not needed for the time being". So far in his career, Ayton has averaged 16.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1 block per game, shooting 59.9 percent from the field, 25 percent from three-point range and 75.4 percent from the free throws. After all, Ayton is still too mediocre, the attack depends on eating cake, and the defensive hardness needs to be improved. More critically, in the small-ball era, the living space of Ayton, a center who does not have the threat of three-pointers and the ability to respond, has been compressed step by step, and his dream of a maximum salary may be temporarily stranded.
According to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, when the free market opens, if a team offers a contract for Ayton and Ayton accepts, the Suns have 15 days to consider whether to match the offer contract. From the current situation, even if a team wants Ayton, Ayton will not receive a maximum salary contract, and he is very likely to accept the Suns' qualification offer with tears, use a year to prove himself, and strive to become a complete free agent next offseason before leaving the Suns' chilling team. As the saying goes, playing iron also needs to be hard, and Ayton must improve his own offensive ability and adapt to the survival rules of the small ball era. Only then will he be qualified to respond to the Suns' humiliation. Friends, what do you think about this? Leave me a comment to discuss.