Phoenix Suns: Which version of Deandre Ayton is best?

Deandre Ayton can either play for the benefit of the Phoenix Suns, or he can play for the benefit of himself. Which of those two options is better?

A few weeks ago, The Ringer ran a great article about Deandre Ayton. In it, the author mentions that there are two paths ahead of Ayton: play like Karl-Anthony Towns, or play like Clint Capela.

To quickly summarize, Ayton might be inclined to post up, chase offensive stats, not play hard defense, and get paid, a la Towns.

However, it would be better for the rest of the Phoenix Suns — such as Devin Booker, Josh Jackson and Brandon Knight — if Ayton would set solid screens, roll hard to the basket, and protect the rim on the other end. Since that route doesn’t pay as well though, it seems like one he’d be less likely to take.

However, there’s a third path to take. Given any two choices, there’s always a middle ground. The middle ground in this case is Deandre Ayton could simply be good at both offense and defense.

What? Suggesting that the former No. 1 overall pick should become a well-rounded player instead of purposely making himself one-dimensional? What a crazy notion. Frankly, neither Towns nor Capela is someone who Deandre Ayton should be emulating.

Towns puts up good scoring stats, with great efficiency. He rebounds pretty well too. Good for him.

He’s also a sieve on defense, and is so bad that his own teammates even question his effort and attitude. In the playoffs, Towns was directly matched up with Capela, and was thoroughly outplayed.

Well, that’s perfect then. If the discussion is which of the two players he should be like, and one outplayed the other, then that’s obviously the one Ayton should want to be, right?

Not so fast. Capela has weaknesses of his own. The article correctly states that Capela was able to hang with the Golden State Warriors’ small-ball lineups, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

He was able to survive against them, but he didn’t thrive. He was playable, yes, but when the going got really tough, he was off the floor. He can guard adequately on the perimeter, but he wasn’t as good at it as Trevor Ariza or P.J. Tucker. Not to mention, he can’t shoot at all, so why keep him out there on a perimeter player if he’s worse at perimeter defense and worse at perimeter offense than the alternative?

Now, if he could post up effectively, that would be a different story. If he could hang with small-ball players on the perimeter, but then punish them in the post on the other end, then he’d be a true mismatch. Alas, he can’t shoot or post up to save his life.

There are players in the league that can do both, though they are quite rare. Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis are the only two who really come to mind as players who can adequately guard the perimeter, protect the rim, score in the post and score from outside.

The article mentions them, but only to say that it took them a while to be good on defense. Which elicits the response … of course it did? Defense is hard, especially for a big man, and no one is expecting Deandre Ayton to come into the league and immediately emulate Rudy Gobert.

However, that doesn’t mean he can’t pursue honing his defense while also honing his offense. Ayton has a decent stroke, a decent post-up game and insane athleticism. The article correctly states that he could very well be either Towns or Capela; if he has both capabilities, then why would he not decide to pursue the best of both?

Embiid and Davis, and maybe eventually guys like Kristaps Porzingis, are the true future of the 5. They cannot be exploited defensively, and they force you to have a big man on the floor at all times to counter them.

The Warriors were able to counter Davis in the playoffs only because they happen to have a seven-footer named Kevin Durant who’s capable of doing just about everything on the floor. Still, they didn’t really counter him; he averaged 27.8 points per game, 14.8 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 2.0 blocks per game for the series. They won because they had more All-Stars at other positions.

It was the same situation with the Philadelphia 76ers in their series victory over the Miami Heat and their loss to the Boston Celtics. Each team would only go super-small if Embiid was out of the game. The smallest the Celtics would go against him was by using Horford at center, and considering Horford himself has spent 82 percent of his career as a center, that doesn’t even really qualify as small-ball.

Essentially, Deandre Ayton could turn himself into the next “small-ball killer.” He has the athleticism to be good enough defensively, both at the rim and on the perimeter. He already has the foundation for a bruising post-up game and a solid outside shot. Now it’s just a matter of patience, and developing both in time.

It’s not like Ayton has to fit neatly in a little box and only do one thing or the other. If head coach Igor Kokoskov wants someone who only sets screens, he can put Tyson Chandler out there. If he wants someone who only posts up… well, let’s hope he doesn’t want that.

Either way, let’s hope Ayton didn’t read that article and already chose which path he wants to be on. He shouldn’t restrict himself to being just an offensive or defensive player, because his potential is truly limitless.