Game 29: Portland Trailblazers (9-19) vs. Dallas Mavericks (18-10) | 7:30pm CST

[Mavs2021]

Ayton is having a pretty damn good game on offense, but on the other end he is making Daniel Gafford look like prime Shaquille O’Neal.

Have I said lately that I am glad the Mavericks could not get him when they tried?

It´s hard to say, what he´d be here. Some players just work better on contenders like a PJ Washington. Phoenix was pretty toxic with all the blame (rightly or wrongly?) being put on Ayton. Anyway I think the biggest argument against Ayton would be his positional salary. He´s the eight highest paid center behind Jokic, Embiid, KAT, AD, Gobert, Adebayo and Sengun. That´s just not good salary cap distribution.

BUT

...we can also not forget that we were still beggars not choosers at the tail end of the Cuban era. The options presented were either start Powell, trade for Capela or trade for Ayton. I´d still pick Ayton from those options, but they choose WISELY and said LIVELY. The rest is history. 

Drafting doesn´t work, never forget.