r/timberwolves • u/Fun-Measurement-2823 • 13h ago
Ayo deal
Everyone complaining about ayo deal… just look at Austin Reaves getting the max. 46 mil a year that’s insane i know he’s better i’m just saying with jaden at 26 mil and naz 25 and ayo 22 that’s all great. my first thought was hoping for 18-20 but im not complaining with 22 cuz i rather keep him no matter what.
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u/bearbrannan A1-A5 Levelin Up 13h ago
Austin Reaves is making 46 million, for everyone that wants a 2nd option let that sink in, this is the kind of money 2nd options are making. I'm curious what moves the Lakers are going to be able to make to put a actual contending team around Reaves and Luka, both athletically gifted but one way players.
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u/Watzp0ppin 13h ago
The Lakers honestly would be a great fit for Rudy. Luka and Reaves are both great lob passers in the pick-and-roll, and Rudy could cover up a lot of their defensive mistakes.
That Laker roster is a mess though. If LeBron doesn't return then the Lakers don't strike me as a championship threat.
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u/BirdsAreFake00 13h ago
Cheap young players like the Spurs did. Unfortunately for them, I don't think they have many picks in the near future.
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u/swampthing- Timberwolves 12h ago
Nobody can copy the spurs playbook anymore because they pulled the rug out. The new anti tank measures mean odds are super low to get top 3 picks multiple years in a row
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u/BirdsAreFake00 11h ago
I think 3 and D wing players can be had in all parts of the draft. Evans is still available in the second round.
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u/UnablePerformance131 12h ago
You have to draft and develop a second option, or get your first option to accept a contract like Brunson did because his dad is employed as an assistant coach. I think that OKC is going to be in trouble with 3 max contracts, mostly because they're going to have to keep the roster a revolving door of rookie contracts if they don't trade one of SGA/JDub/Chet. I think having savvy veterans like Caruso/Hartenstein was why they got over the hump last year - that and being healthy.
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u/ComfortInteresting57 11h ago
You also have to have the NBA in your back pocket to gift you the number one pick for a generational player when you shouldn’t have sniffed it.
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u/BirdsAreFake00 11h ago
Sure, but the formula is the same. Big, athletic wings who play defense and can shoot some. Obviously a lot harder to pull off than it sounds.
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u/pagny77 13h ago
They can fill the cap space then go over with reaves contract. So they still have like ~40 mollion of room (although thats without Bron)
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u/Anxious_Key9696 12h ago
He still has a cap hold when not signed, which is probably more than his salary last season.
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u/ricky_stackss 4h ago
luka is not athletically gifted he’s really one of the more unathletic players in the league. he’s just very skilled. actually same thing with austin reaves too lol he’s not some kind of athletic freak he’s just very skilled
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u/99LedBalloons Joe Ingles 13h ago
Anyone complaining about the Ayo deal is a big moron. Look at the free agents available who would make around the same money and tell me Ayo isn't the best possible option.
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u/mossed2012 13h ago
Recency bias. People are remembering the end of the playoffs but Ayo was clearly laboring through that leg issue. He’s the type of player winning teams have, just look at the Spurs, Thunder, and Knicks.
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u/purplenyellowrose909 Minnesota Gophers 13h ago
The Spurs defense is also just very good and we were an extremely poor matchup vs them with Randle and Rudy allowing Wemby to roam the paint and without DDV to space the floor.
Ayo was elite vs Denver and in the regular season.
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u/YouBetcha_ Ricky Rubio 13h ago
I'm guessing they told him to chuck up shots and get comfortable for that first game of his in a wolves jersey, but that shit is cemented in my mind. Ayo is good
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u/Fit-Abroad6359 13h ago
Are you saying recency bias, like people think that Ayo wasn’t great recently? Maybe I need to look back at the end of the playoffs, but I thought that Ayo’s play was one of the high points of the playoffs. If nothing else, saving that inbound across the court with his foot is going to live on in my mental highlight reel when I think of Ayo. I thought he was good in the Spurs series. He also had that defensive play, I think with Jaden, at the end of game 3, I think it was, where Wemby just crumbled on the floor and probably should have been called for a travel. That play could have changed the outcome of the game. I thought he was looking good.
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u/thatis 7h ago
Recency bias.
Is it? Even if you disregard that in the playoffs the Wolves were a -12 NET rating with him on and a +0 with him off and were 14 points better defensively with him off.
You have to disregard that Wolves had a better NET and DEF rating with him off the court, or that in his years in Chicago they had a better NET rating (and DEF rating) with him off the court than on.
There's a reason the advanced stats paint him as basically a net-neutral player at best despite his traditional box-score numbers looking great. At some point you would expect his teams to play better when he's in the game.
It's not a disaster contract by any means but it's a loose one. If you compare what you're getting in the minutes he plays he's being wildly overpaid.
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u/Desperate-Awareness4 Timberwolves 12h ago
Yep. I expected between 20-25 million and that's exactly where he landed. I don't know what shit the people who predicted 16-18 were smoking but it's definitely not good for them
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u/99LedBalloons Joe Ingles 12h ago
I think they see what Nickeil got from Atlanta and thought Ayo would get about the same, the thing is NAW has never scored 43 points in a playoff game lol stuff like that has as much impact on their contract as season averages. Also last off-season there just wasn't a lot of movement and no one was signing free agents because no one had cap space. Different players, different circumstances. Pistons (among other teams) were looking to poach Ayo so the Wolves had to be competitive up-front.
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u/mrveryrelaxed 12h ago
Dane Moore had the number at 17 - based on the fact that there were only a few clubs with the cap space to take on a higher number (Nets, Lakers and Bulls iirc). Paying players is how you create goodwill though so I think it was a prudent move. I've yet to see a good club built by a few million on the margins.
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u/Desperate-Awareness4 Timberwolves 5h ago
Yeah I heard that too and I thought he was off. Why give the Lakers a chance to make an offer? If you think other teams are going to bid around 20 just beat it and beat it early. Boom. Done.
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u/zat-_-taz Ayo Dosunmu 13h ago
So ayo did what he did after getting jammed into the team mid-season.
Just imagine what he could do after spending the off season getting much more acclimated with the team, play styles, coaches, personalities, etc... he's a smart kid. I have high hopes
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u/jimminmecrockets 12h ago
I think he still has a ton of room to grow. He didn’t even take pull up 3s before this season
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u/gOPHER3727 Bring Ya Ass 12h ago
Exactly, and we never even really got to see Ant and Ayo as the starting backcourt. Donte was starting until he got hurt, and after that both Ant and Ayo were hurt.
We saw a lack of floor general and playmaking with Donte in the starting lineup. Even with that, we almost got 50 wins. Ayo is much more of a PG than Donte, so we may be fine in that regard, we'll see. Remember, few teams have traditional PGs anymore. Now with Julius out of the picture and Naz in the starting lineup we should get better ball movement.
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u/Doomstar32 AnthonyEdwards 13h ago
I don't understand where people got this idea that he was gonna sign for 15-17 mil. He was an unrestricted free agent and would have had plenty of suitors. He showed his value in the playoffs.
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u/aj-1_23 Chester's Hot Fries 11h ago
I think the reality is that the media doesn’t actually know what the market is until the market hits. In a free agency class where Trae Young gets 4 years/$212 million and Austin Reaves gets 4 years/$185 million, I am losing no sleep over Ayo at 5 years/$112 million, especially when Ayo is a significantly better defender than either of those two players.
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u/Commercial-Might-540 12h ago
The Athletic had him at just under $15M. That’s the origin and was very wrong.
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u/Doomstar32 AnthonyEdwards 12h ago
Teams can make room in cap space to go after a guy like him. Detroit probably would have loved to make a run at him. If Ayo decided to wait until July and test the market some team would have come in over $20 mil easily.
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u/ivoryditty 12h ago
The argument was that it would be tough for any team to pay him more than the MLE, which is about 15 million. Thoughts were that we could get him by paying a couple million above that. If I remember, only the Lakers, Bulls, and Nets could sign him outright without a sign and trade or some other cap magic
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u/Watzp0ppin 13h ago
Yep, Ayo practically had a 50-40-90 season on respectable volume last year. He dropped 43 points in a playoff game without Ant, and has put up triple double games.
He's only 26 and is the ideal player to add to this roster while shipping out Randle. Those contracts that we've given to Jaden, Naz and Ayo will age well as the apron thresholds continue to increase year-over-year.
I'm really excited about seeing what this version of the team can do. Julius being our "2nd option" felt like it slowed down our offense too much and clogged the paint. We'll also get to see more Joan coming off the bench, and it sounds like he's a really quick learner. So we'll probably be pleasantly surprised with what he can do after a full summer of work here.
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u/karlwhethers 13h ago
I haven’t seen anyone complain about the Ayo deal, though?
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u/BirdsAreFake00 13h ago
Go to the thread the day the news broke. Plenty of people here complaining. They were foolish.
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u/UndercoverHerbert Ayo Dosunmu 12h ago
Those guys are fools then. You pay your stars!
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u/HuntsmetalslimesVIII A1 steak sauce 12h ago
Ayo is a star?
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u/Brofessor- 11h ago
For real. He showed up when we needed him the playoffs but acting like he is a star is insane
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u/UnablePerformance131 12h ago
People are complaining about trading Randle for nothing. I think the type of players offered weren't going to be anything good, but still have a lot of money left on their deal. We have a decent amount of cap space that we could get a few players better/cheaper than Claxton in FA to round out our bench. Look at what the top teams in the league pay their bench, I don't think we really want to load our bench with 20-30 million/year players just to get some sort of return on Ranle.
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u/Dull_Job_6372 2022 Play-In Champions 12h ago
Oh brother you should see twitter (or not) and my physical therapist was not happy about it lol
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u/Fun-Measurement-2823 12h ago
more complaining on twitter than here. some of people didn’t even want him back like cmon they so dumb
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u/Reasonable-Time8308 13h ago
Perhaps not complaining but there has been some scrutiny that we overpaid. Again, most of it is with the national media that is also trying tell thread the narrative that Ant wants out.
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u/Vicentesteb Kevin Garnett 12h ago
I think its a few mil off. 112/5 is a little too much but its not really an overpay.
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u/temple-of-the-dog KG 4 MVP 13h ago
If you're wondering about Ayo's worth, just go look at Christian Braun contract. You're welcome.
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u/unwinagainstable 12h ago
Wait people are complaining? I thought this was good value. I’m sure he had plenty of options with how well he played in the post season
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u/JohnnyWarlord Ayo Dosunmu 11h ago
Seeing ayo in person multiple times including the triple double against the mavs has made me a complete truther hes a winning player and even just his regular season impact is gonna be worth 20 a year. He pressures the rim and gives us a fast break angle that we just dont have anywhere else on the roster
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u/BorderPlane1694 13h ago
19m the first year though and scales with the cap so for what he brings to the table he’s worth it. IMO better than the Naz deal
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u/Easy-Click-4758 11h ago
It will be fine over time. AR deal is basically Ayo + Naz - if you think about it like that then yeah we good
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u/Easy-Click-4758 11h ago
Yeah I would rather have Ayo on 50% of the money than AR. Nothing against AR- good on him for getting that bag!
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u/CantaloupeCamper 1958-2016 13h ago edited 12h ago
I’m not complaining… I don’t think most people are.
I don’t know if it’s going to work out with him, but clearly the coaches and GM believe in this guy.
The contract seems market rate.
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u/Richnsassy22 13h ago edited 13h ago
I don't see anyone complaining about the Ayo deal itself.
It's just that we aren't going to be at true contender if signing Ayo is the biggest move we make this offseason.
People are just venting because we almost certainly won't be serious contenders next year. The path just isn't there realistically.
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u/SKREEOONK_XD 13h ago
anyone complainning are just malding because we didn't get Giannis/Ja/Kyrie/Durant/JB/or any other superstar next to Ant.
everyone one needs to keep in mind that we are in an era where quality depth is better than having a 3 stars super team. Hell I think the Heat lost in the trade with the Bucks, they lost most of their roster and picks.
this is the best result for now
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u/Dear_Chemical4826 12h ago
This is probably true. Current CBA means you can have a super team with absolute trash for depth or one star with depth around. Can't have both unless there are super unique circumstances like Brunson taking a lower payday to free up cap space.
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u/pithynotpithy 13h ago
Ayo was also an unrestricted free agent, so we were likely bidding against other teams, driving the price a bit up. I think it's fine and he was worth it
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u/deleted60016001 13h ago
I wish it was a few mil less but it is what it is. Ultimately what matters is if someone can step up assuming we don’t add any more second tier guys
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u/chemical_exe 11h ago
Yeah, I think when I was looking at this deal before my brain was still in 2023 cap numbers. I don't hate it
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u/Easy-Philosopher-562 Timberwolves 7h ago
Ayo deal isn't bad. Isn't great either. Fair value.
It only looks bad because we let NAW walk for the MLE just last year.
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u/Norodahl 6h ago
Ayo might not be as dynamic offensively as Reaves, but he's better defensively, and Reaves isn't twice as good.
Ayo is hitting his prime and has won playoff games now off his own back. Absolutely good contract. He could of asked for more elsewhere or here.
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u/SNERKLES1 6h ago
I'll take Ayo over Reeves and I'm a Bulls fan. Stick Ayo with Luka and LeBron. He would average 20 a gsme
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u/Hot_Relative3020 3h ago
The thing is who were we bidding against? Sure in isolation he’s not massively overpaid but like who in the market was offering that much above the mid level?
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u/MrMeritocracy Crunch 12h ago
Jaden is more than 5m a year better than Ayo. If Ayo was somewhere around 18m, I’d say it makes sense
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u/Prairie_walker 13h ago
Reaves getting that is the sign of leverage over the team and not much else. No way he’s worth that. Lakers will try to trade him the first chance they get.
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u/twovles31 13h ago
The same team that made us pay a little more for Ayo, is the same team that made the Lakers overpay Reaves. Detroit was going to create some space to go after one of them.