Ex-UA Wildcat Ayton healthy and ready for Suns' final playoff push

Even before COVID-19 derailed the sports world in March, the word “interrupted” had largely defined Deandre Ayton’s second NBA season.

First, there was his 25-game suspension for testing positive for a diuretic. Then ankle injuries that cost him another 10 games, including the last one the Phoenix Suns played before the NBA season was stopped on March 11.

While the former Arizona star still averaged 19.0 points and 12.0 rebounds over 30 games, the Suns are just 26-39 overall this season after a horrific 19-63 finish in Ayton’s rookie season of 2018-19.

Even Ayton’s passion for video games hasn’t always been working out all that well. During an NBA 2K Players Tournament in April, teammate Devin Booker beat Ayton in an all-Suns final, earning a $100,000 donation for a coronavirus charity.

“There’s gonna be a little fistfight between me and Book if he keeps beating me,” Ayton said. “He’s a gamer.”

Ayton was joking, as he often is. As the Bahamian big man indicated Thursday, during a Zoom interview with Arizona media, his easygoing nature and underlying competitiveness may be how he survived the NBA’s shutdown and how he is carrying an upbeat attitude despite the long odds the Suns face in Orlando.

Here’s how Ayton explained how he’s spent the past few months and what’s ahead:

“I had a break. I was happy. I felt like I was back in high school. I played 2K all day. Skipped from sleep to playing the game all day. … Obviously everybody was on me about going to the gym and I put basketball into my schedule later on in quarantine. But I definitely took advantage of that break, taking a load off. I think that’s why I have so much energy, because I wasn’t thinking about it and I was just waiting for the world to get back to normal.”

The time off also gave Ayton time to reflect on where he’s gone since leaving Arizona in 2018.

“For me, it’s not taking things for granted. I think as a young guy in the league, I learned a lot, I went through a lot. I could have been stopped a lot, and I didn’t stop. I stayed on the positive path and the Suns organization kept me taking the right steps to where I am today. …

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“It gave me some humility, in a way. That’s why I think I enjoyed my family being there for me. … It really helped me get up every day and be consistent, especially through the suspension. Just working every day, keeping that goal on my mind no matter how I was feeling when I was going through it. I’m just doing it with a positive vibe, positive mind now. I’m happy.”

Ayton has put in work on his 3-point game, even though he’s yet to make one in seven career tries.

“Let me tell you about that 3-ball, man. I’m shooting it like it’s a middy (midrange shot). … Other than that, I’ve been trying to dribble the ball, get it off the rebound, pushing the tempo, being more of an offensive threat. I really think I proved in this league that I’m a two-way player … so it’s just enhancing my offense more, being even more of a threat not just down low, but getting somebody open or attacking the paint more, being a focal point to make other people better.”

Ayton will get the chance to show what he can do in front of TV cameras in Orlando, but he’ll be living in a bubble-like restricted environment. That doesn’t bother him, though.

“I’m a kid. I don’t really have much interest in thinking beyond Disney World. I have my video game. I’m gonna have my phone and be around all my teammates. I’d love to see my family but I’ve been around them long enough in the quarantine. I think different. I’m ready. I’m just ready to play basketball. I’m ready to see us on TV and there’s history to be made.”

Ayton said he doesn’t have any concerns about playing in the middle of a pandemic, considering how the NBA is setting up the Disney games.

“I trust the league. We’re testing almost every day and we’re staying on top of it, wearing gloves and wearing masks, using hand sanitizers every step we take. So I think we’re good. It is dangerous. But we just follow the rules and just try to go as far in this tournament as possible.”

That’s the question, though. Even if healthy, the Suns aren’t expected to go far in Orlando. At 26-39, Phoenix is six games out of the eighth and final playoff spot with just eight games to go, but can pull into a play-in tournament if it can finish in ninth and within four games of the eighth-place team.

“It’s a great opportunity. … To play eight games in that position is such a blessing. I just can’t wait to see my guys, to really spread this energy and show them what we can do. We’ve been working during quarantine. ... Whatever the media has to say, we’re going to add to the fuel.”