'Sky's the limit' for ex-Wildcat Deandre Ayton on Phoenix Suns' opening night

Just two years ago, a transplanted Bahamian named Deandre Ayton was taking high school classes and working out at an industrial park tucked south of Interstate 10 near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

On Wednesday, when the Phoenix Suns host Dallas just six miles away at Talking Stick Resort Arena, Ayton will play his first NBA game and begin collecting an $8.2 million salary.

That’s a short time, a short distance … and a long leap.

Or not.

“Oh no. Not at all,” Ayton said. “It’s about time I’m here. I’ve been waiting too long.”

Ayton’s perspective is understandable. Ever since he starred in a high-profile Bahamas camp as a 12-year-old, and especially after he put up 17 points and 18 rebounds on North Carolina in a Nassau exhibition game when he was 16, Ayton has been riding a track toward the NBA.

He was shuttled out of Nassau to a prep school in San Diego in middle school, then transferred to Phoenix’s Hillcrest Prep in 2015, and bulldozed his way through college basketball last season at Arizona.

Ayton was the Pac-12s Player of the Year, a first-team all-American and, eventually, the No. 1 NBA Draft pick.

You could say he’s ready to start proving himself on basketball’s biggest stage.

Certainly, his college coach does.

“He’s a No. 1 pick, but he’s a different No. 1 pick,” UA coach Sean Miller said earlier this month. “In my mind, he’s gonna take the NBA by storm in large part because he’s incredibly intelligent. He’s a very smart guy off the court and he’s a very smart guy on the court. He picks things up quickly and learns. When you’re as talented and as intelligent as he is, the sky’s the limit.”

As the Suns’ training camp opened late last month, Ayton spoke modestly. Philadelphia all-star center Joel Embiid said Ayton was about to get his “ass kicked,” but Ayton said he wouldn’t say anything until he starts putting the “ball in the hoop.”

“This is another league, man,” Ayton said. “I’m just gonna do what I have to do.”

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He said he wanted his game to do the talking, and it did immediately during the preseason. Ayton opened with 24 points and nine rebounds against the Sacramento Kings and his brief former Hillcrest teammate, Marvin Bagley.

Then Ayton had 19 and 14 against Portland. In four exhibition games against other NBA teams, Ayton averaged 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 59.1 percent.

That projects into a pretty good rookie year.

“Deandre Ayton is dominant. He’s a monster,” Suns teammate Josh Jackson wrote in a diary for ESPN. “He is the No. 1 pick for a reason. Any team in the draft who had the No. 1 pick would have picked that dude right there for obvious reasons. I tell him every game, ‘Nobody can stop you. Go in there with a mindset that no one will stop you.’”

At Arizona last season, Miller went with the less-mobile Dusan Ristic at center, leaving Ayton often at power forward. There, he often had to deal with defensive mismatches.

But Suns coach Igor Kokoskov said he will only use Ayton at center. The only question is how broadly Ayton will define that position.

“He has a lot of skills he can incorporate in his game, so my job is to help him find his role, find his game and play to his strengths,” Kokoskov said. “But it’s going to be up to him with how far he wants to go with this.”

It’s a different sort of responsibility.

“I’m more down low now,” Ayton said. “Obviously, I’m gonna switch but I’m the main anchor down low now.

“Last year, I was always on the perimeter. But for the rest of my career, the rest of my life, I will be protecting the rim.”

For the rest of what could be a very long career, that is. Because as long as the journey to the NBA may have felt to Ayton, his journey within it could be much longer.

For years, or even decades, starting Wednesday.