The Phoenix Suns have matched the Indiana Pacers’ four-year, $133 million offer for restricted free agent center Deandre Ayton, clearing the way for his return to the franchise, his agents Bill Duffy and Nima Namakian told ESPN on Thursday night.
The Suns had until 11:59 PM ET on Saturday to match the largest offer in NBA history, but they matched it promptly and ended the Pacers’ pursuit of Ayton.
Phoenix showed no inclination to negotiate a sign-and-trade agreement with Indiana before Ayton signed the sheet, sources said, signaling the Suns would likely match the offer once it was presented to them. If the Suns didn’t match up, they would be losing Ayton, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft, for nothing.
The Suns can’t trade Ayton until Jan. 15 — and they can’t trade him for an entire year without his consent. That takes Ayton out of any possible offseason trade scenario involving Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant.
Namakian of Innovate Sports and Duffy of BDA Sports and WME had insisted to the Suns that they could find a max contract offer for Ayton on the market, and they provided it with the offer sheet. The Suns never made Ayton a max offer, suggesting they don’t value him as a max player.
The largest offer signed by a non-matching team was when Harrison Barnes was signed by the Dallas Mavericks for four years and $94.4 million in 2016, the same summer Barnes’ former team, the Golden State Warriors, signed Durant as a free agent.
Ayton was excited about the opportunity to pair with talented young guard Tyrese Haliburton and become the centerpiece of the Pacers’ rebuild, sources told ESPN.
Indiana traded Malcolm Brogdon earlier this offseason and Domantas Sabonis last season, moving into a new era centered around an exciting young backcourt of Halliburton, a rising star, and rookie Benedict Maturin, the sixth pick in last month’s NBA draft.
The Pacers had to clear $4.7 million in cap space to sign Ayton to the max offer sheet. To do that, Indiana waived guard Dwayne Washington and waived and stretched the three players who arrived in Boston’s trade for Brogdon: Malik Fitts, Juvan Morgan and Nick Stauskas, sources told ESPN.
Ayton, who turns 24 next week, was selected as the first pick in the 2018 draft out of Arizona, part of a star-studded draft class that also included Luka Doncic (third), Jaren Jackson Jr. (fourth), Trae Young (fifth ) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (11th).
After making the 2019 All-Rookie First Team, Ayton developed into a quality starting center, averaging 16.3 points and 10.5 rebounds while helping anchor Phoenix’s defense during its run to the NBA Finals in 2021 – The first time the franchise has reached the league championship round since Charles Barkley led the Suns there in 1993.
He averaged 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds last season, shooting 63.4 percent from the field and 74.6 percent from the foul line.
After an outstanding regular season that ended with the best record in the league, Phoenix’s postseason run ended with a huge loss to the Mavericks in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals, a game that Ayton spent most of the second half watching from the bench.
When asked after the game why that happened, Suns coach Monty Williams said, “It’s internal.” Ayton, meanwhile, declined to speak to reporters after the game.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Bobby Marks contributed to this report.
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