Deandre Ayton feels like the whole world hates him 📺

[WILD]

https://twitter.com/AndrewLeezus/status/1681726451660521472

[arxpert]

https://twitter.com/AndrewLeezus/status/1681726451660521472

I don't hate Ayton. He is a Top 5 Center in the NBA. Deal with it haters.

[KansasCityCats]

The young players need to stop paying attention to social media. There will always be haters.

For any #1 draft pick, unrealistic expectations will exist and fans will inevitably hold his raw abilities against him.

If it's motivation for Ayton to play harder...bonus. Whether he wins a title or not, Deandre has enough money to live a luxurious lifestyle, take care of his family and appreciate the hard work that it took to make it this far.

Bear down, big man. I'll never watch an NBA game but I'll always be a fan.

[Naterade]

Iv been off the Ayton train for a year, I wanted him to fucking kill it in The league so bad. He comes off as pretty genuine in the interview and it's good to hear. I just want to see him smashing on dudes the way he did in college. The dunk on Oregon when he got called for a tech is top 5 wildcats basketball moments for me.

[arxpert]

The young players need to stop paying attention to social media. There will always be haters.

For any #1 draft pick, unrealistic expectations will exist and fans will inevitably hold his raw abilities against him.

If it's motivation for Ayton to play harder...bonus. Whether he wins a title or not, Deandre has enough money to live a luxurious lifestyle, take care of his family and appreciate the hard work that it took to make it this far.

Bear down, big man. I'll never watch an NBA game but I'll always be a fan.

Too many people think Ayton is a bust because he got victimized by Jokic. No one stops Jokic. Same people who talk down about Ayton didn't have much to say when Luka abused Mikail Bridges. This is a Generation issue.

I really don't like saying "Gen Z", but this is a classic case of where Gen Z can get into the heads of other Gen Z's. Soon enough it will be Gen Alpha annoying the living shit out of Gen Z.

Sort of like how currently Lebron is the GOAT to Gen Z, but Millenials and older know the GOAT is truly MJ... soon enough, Gen Alpha is going to say Luka is the GOAT and Lamelo Ball is "Melo". Social Media will become so brutal over the next decade. No one even really used the term GOAT at the rate it is thrown around until the last 10 years or so when Gen Z was able to wipe the Similac off their chins and get parental controls unlocked from their phones.

Ayton is not a bust. He has been a very steady player and his career arc is only getting better. Michael Olowakandi and Greg Oden were busts. Younger fans throw the terms around way too loosely and unfortunately younger players feel the need to be so "plugged in" to what people in their age group think.

People always forget how young players actually are and they also forget that there were many picks in the Ayton draft that are considered great players or elite. Ayton, Luka, Jaren Jackson Jr, Trae Young, Mikail Bridges, Shai Gilges Alexander, Miles Bridges --

Other notables include Michael Porter Jr, Bruce Brown (2nd round),, Donte DiVincenzo Anfernee Simons, Jalen Brunson (2nd round) etc there are tons if you actually look at the draft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_NBA_draft

Bold indicates players from the 2018 draft class who have NBA Finals Experience or a Ring.

Now it's safe to say everyone I just listed would be considered better than basically 3 players in the entire 2013 draft. So everything is relative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_NBA_draft

I notice more people focus on Ayton and ignore clowning ATL for dumping Luka for Trae on draft night. Not many people clown Philly for trading up for Markelle Fultz and letting Boston have Tatum either. It's all relative.

This is just my opinion here, but contrary to what some pros may say, I think Ayton was stifled by playing with CP3 and playing for Monty who hated him. Yes - maybe Ayton had a great "role" in that finals run being used as a human shield for CP3, but CP3 definitely sucked the life force out of Ayton and turned him into "Deandre Jordan on the Clippers of Lob City" when Ayton was doing just fine before he got there using his elbow jump shot range and doing well from the FT line.

I hope the Suns hold onto Ayton at least through this deadline minimum and give Frank Vogel a chance to work with him defensively. Monty Williams was a great motivational type of coach if you think about HIS story, but that's not everyone else's story. Sometimes a Coach like Monty can make it too much about him and his adversity and it doesn't translate to the players at all.

[|ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ|]

Half of the hate is from all the Doncic fanboys in the Suns fanbase (a ton) who love simping for Luka and fantasizing about how the Suns should have drafted him instead. It's been going on for years. Nothing Ayton does will ever be good enough for them. What they fail to consider is that Booker would be playing somewhere else by now because stars don't want to play with that dude. So we'd be sitting here watching one guy pad his stats while we hover around the bottom of the playoffs or the back of the lottery year after year. Purgatory. Hard pass. It'll be interesting to see if Ayton can really get dialed in consistently now that CP3 and Monty are out of the picture.

TL;DR - Luka simps like to simp,
              but Ayton also needs to do better