The latest in Deandre Ayton | rumors hoops

Reports .this week Keep suggesting that suns And the Dender Eaton He may be destined for a divorce, with a signature and trade agreement being the most likely outcome. However, it is still not clear which teams will be the best suitors for Ayton in the restricted free agency.

Prior to last week’s draft, it was pistons They were considered a strong candidate to make a play for Ayton, but they were relegated Galen Doreen On draft night and their commitment to using most of their cover space to accommodate payroll dumps, making it less likely that they’ll play serious for the former No. 1 overall pick.

In the last episode of Hoop collective podcastsaid ESPN’s Brian Windhurst to “monitor Indiana,” noting that Pacers Talk to Phoenix about a potential Ayton deal before the February trade deadline (hat tip to Timothy Rapp from the Bleacher Report).

It would make sense for Indiana to be a landing point for Ayton if the team were to trade the current position Miles Turner. Pacers have some flexibility in the cap and won’t be restricted by the action Base year compensation The ruling affects Ayton as some other suitors may have.

As a result of the base year compensation rule, Eaton’s upcoming salary from the new team’s perspective will count in full (on a maximum salary contract, which would be around $31 million), while from Suns’ perspective, the outgoing salary is only half that amount (about $15.5 million) .

This will make salary matching very difficult in some cases, but not for the Pacers team, who have the extreme flexibility needed to accommodate Eaton’s new contract with less than the US$24-25 million that would be required to meet the matching requirements.

Here are some rumors about possible landing sites for Ayton:

• The Timberwolves“Another team to watch” for iTunes, Windhurst said during the aforementioned episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, which is believed to be in the market for Edge Protection Center. The wolves will be over the limit and will need to make a signing and trading deal. It’s unclear if they have the pieces needed for such a move.
• The Networks Like Ayton, according to Chris Mannix from SI.comwhich suggests that Brooklyn could assemble a package centered around it Joe Harris. However, this would be very difficult, as getting a player by signing and trading would make the Nets cap difficult, which is expected to be much higher than taxes. It’s hard to see how they can make such a move without moving Keri Irving or Ben Simmons.
• The wild birds He was mentioned as a potential student for Ayton, but Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter linkI don’t think there have been any talks about a Toronto takeover of the big guy.
• John Gambador of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) indicates that the looming probability of Rudy Gobert Trade can affect the Ayton market, because some teams in the market for influence center prefer Jazz Star to iTunes.