The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

DEANDRE Ayton officially inked his new deal with the Phoenix Suns and said his focus has shifted from the business of basketball to the pursuit of the franchise’s first NBA title.

Ayton officially signed his new four-year $133 million contract at the Suns’ facility in Phoenix, Arizona, and discussed the way forward for both parties after his unrestricted free agent process concluded.

“I’m happy to put free agency behind me and ready to work and compete for a championship with my teammates,” said Ayton.

Ayton, a highly coveted restricted free agent target, signed a maximum offer sheet on July 14 with the Indiana Pacers and within moments, the Suns matched the offer to retain the no.1 overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft.

The contract represented the richest offer sheet in NBA history for a restricted free agent.

“This is a blessing. This contract not only has generational impact for my family, but also with the way we are able to work in the Phoenix community and home in the Bahamas. That is the things that we go by,” Ayton told ESPN’s Andscape.

“I’ve come to understand that this is a business. So, I was more anxious to know the end of the result so I could focus, move on and just get back to work. I just treated everything like a business. Just keep being professional, approach everything with professionalism and not looking too deep into it.”

In his fourth season, the 24-year-old centre averaged 17.2 points on a career high 63 percent from the field and 10.2 rebounds per game in 58 appearances.

The Suns finished with an NBA best and new franchise record of 64-18.

Ayton’s offer sheet surpassed the previous record offered to a restricted free agent of four years, $107 million Otto Porter signed with the Brooklyn Nets in 2016.

“The shift in free agency brought a lot of uncertainty through the whole process,” Ayton said.

“I got to give a lot of respect to the Pacers organisation. They were aggressive from the start and showing a lot of love. And we agreed to a max offer sheet,” he said. “The Suns matched. Now, I’m back in Phoenix as a Sun.”

He was eligible for a five-year, $172.5 million extension that could have reached as much as $207 million if he reached benchmarks and incentives.

Several players in his 2018 NBA draft class have received max contract extensions, including Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Jaren Jackson Jr of the Memphis Grizzlies, Kevin Huerter of the Atlanta Hawks, Michael Porter Jr of the Denver Nuggets.

Contract negotiations between Ayton and the Suns reached an impasse last April after both sides failed to reach an agreement on a rookie contract extension.

After making the All- Rookie first team in 2019, Ayton has averaged 16.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in 236 games as a member of the Suns over the last four seasons.

He recorded both his 3,000th career point and his 2,000th career rebound this past season, becoming the second-fastest player to reach these milestones in a Suns uniform behind only Charles Barkley.

“We wanted Deandre here. He’s vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would.

“So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn’t something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be,” said Suns general manager James Jones.

“I’m one to just be direct. And if you’re convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there’s any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly.”

Ayton’s personal development coincided with the team’s rise in the standings.

In his rookie season, the Suns finished just 19-63 and had improved to 34-39 in the 2019-20 season and again to 51-21 in 2020-21 en route to the team’s first NBA Finals appearance since 1993.

“Deandre is a force on both ends of the floor, who has elevated his game every year and will continue to do so,” Jones said.

“DA is so important to what we do and without him, we could not have reached our recent levels of success. We are excited to keep Deandre at home in the Valley where he belongs.”