One of the weirder stories to emerge from the 2021-22 NBA season was the Phoenix Suns stale contract negotiations with starting center Deandre Ayton. Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft — a totally defensible selection had Luka Donu010diu0107 and Trae Young not existed — wanted a max extension, and the Suns weren’t buying it.
On the one hand it was defensive. Ayton, who averaged 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last year, with great efficiency and good defense, has the look of a quite-good-but-not-great player. He was either the Suns third or fourth-best player, and you can understand the hesitancy to offer such a player the rookie max.