When Deandre Ayton heard he was going to be teammates with Chris Paul, he began thinking about what playing with the future Hall of Fame point guard could mean.
"I remembered watching him on TV -- when it was 'Lob City' -- and I never imagined being out there with him," Ayton said. "He's made centers in this league All-Stars, and led to the biggest contracts.
"You embrace that."
Ayton cares about what people think of him. The pressure started the moment he was taken first overall in the 2018 NBA draft -- two spots ahead of Luka Doncic. Two years ago, he finished behind Doncic in Rookie of the Year voting. Last season, Ayton was hit with a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy by testing positive for a banned diuretic, followed by two ankle injuries. Meanwhile, Doncic became a legitimate MVP candidate in his second season with the Dallas Mavericks, drawing further scrutiny on the Phoenix Suns big man.
"[The criticism] bothered me, but that's the life I chose," Ayton said. "It was decisions I made and unintentional mistakes and there were consequences. I didn't put my head down -- I owned it.
"It was looking in the mirror and saying, 'I'm not that person.'"
But being overshadowed by Doncic doesn't mean Ayton is lacking potential -- far from it. There are moments when he elevates himself into the upper tier of NBA centers, a development that could reshape the future of the Western Conference.
Ayton possesses the rare combination of quickness and size that, when he plays with aggression, he stands out on the floor like a beacon: A bone-rattling screen is followed by a hard roll to the rim for a vicious lob dunk; switching on to a smaller player on defense and tracking him three, then four dribbles into the paint before swatting a shot; out of position but bolting into a crowd and ripping away an offensive rebound before going right back up for a basket and foul.
The detail that might forever be attached to his resume -- being selected ahead of Doncic -- fades and his teammates, most notably Paul and Devin Booker, realize how close they are to having a high-level big three on their roster.
Ayton recently had a four-game stretch in which he averaged 22 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks. Two of those games came against the Denver Nuggets and MVP candidate Nikola Jokic, who reviewed Ayton as "amazing."
But this isn't quite everyday Ayton. Sometimes he's sluggish, passive and slow. Sometimes he gets pushed away from the basket or is out of position and gets in foul trouble. He doesn't roll hard to the basket, which is especially egregious playing with a lob-master general like Paul. Despite his imposing stature, Ayton averages a paltry 2.8 free throw attempts per game (the Utah Jazz's Rudy Gobert averages 5.4 attempts in similar minutes, while Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid puts up 11.3 attempts per game).
That inconsistency leads to his teammates and coaches being harder on him, trying to draw out the force they know he can play with.
"There are times where you've seen guys tell everyone to leave him alone after hearing it from three or four different guys and two to three coaches," Suns coach Monty Williams said. "DA doesn't do that. That can be a lot on a young player."
On most teams, there is usually one player who bears the brunt of the badgering. On the Suns, it's Ayton.
Often in huddles, in film sessions or right in the middle of a game, Suns veterans such as Paul, Booker, Jae Crowder and a coach or three will have their eyes focused upward, intensely speaking with the 6-foot-11 center locked in to every syllable.
There's a few reasons why it has evolved this way. Some of it might be Ayton's laid-back temperament. He will listen and, often, he will try to take in what he's told.
"We're all grown men," Ayton said. "That's how we talk. That's what teammates are for."
Those teammates, and Ayton's coaches, are aware of just how much potential he possesses -- and how much better the Suns are when Ayton plays with an edge.
"You see this white hair in my eyebrows," Williams said, rubbing his fingers over his forehead. "It's something that I take as a challenge to show him how dominant he can be when he plays a certain way. We have a sample size now of when he plays with force and spirit, he's an elite player."
Ayton returned to the team 12 pounds slimmer than last season, and he's noticeably more effective moving laterally on defense. His technique all around has improved, which is also credited to Suns big man coach Mark Bryant, who came over from the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he helped Steven Adams become one of the league's better big-man defenders. Ayton's improvement in footwork and body control is evident.
Playing with Paul, Ayton has gotten better in the high pick-and-roll as he learns how to take angles and move in traffic. Last Saturday in Dallas, Paul was brilliant in the fourth quarter, with 16 points and five assists to outplay Doncic. His partner throughout was Ayton, who was setting screens and rebounding with force on his way to 18 points and 17 rebounds.
Paul was chewing on Ayton's ear during every timeout of the Suns' fourth-quarter run.
"Everyone on our team is so hard on him because we know what he's capable of," Paul said. "To be one of the greats in our league, you just have to have consistency, and he's more than capable of it."
In the end, Ayton wants three things: He wants to help the Suns get to the playoffs, in large part because he's close to Booker and has seen how being on the outside of the postseason has eaten away at his teammate the past few seasons.
Second, he's in his third season and knows that at the end of this year there will be a decision by the Suns on what sort of contract extension to offer, which is why the max deals DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin got with Paul with the Lob City-era Clippers entered his mind when the CP3 trade went through. "That's facts," Ayton said.
And third, he wants to be viewed as one of the best in the league, befitting of his draft status.
He has shown flashes this season -- as have the Suns, who started 5-1 before a health and protocol shutdown and Booker's hamstring injury slowed them -- of being able to achieve those goals. But not always, and that's what this process is about.
"People don't understand that about DA. He really cares about his career, he cares about the narratives around him," Williams said. "[I tell him] you've shown that when you don't play with the force and spirit the results aren't the same. I want it for him as bad as anybody. Because I hear all the stuff surrounding his name and think it's unfair."
Ayton has heard it, too. From the fans. From the media. From Paul and Booker and Crowder and Williams and Bryant. As always, he smiles at it -- that's who he is. How this pivotal time shapes his career, that is still to be seen.
"It's a good time for everything right now. We have a new practice facility, we have an arena renovation, we have good young players and I've been blessed with [Paul and Booker] " Ayton said. "I want to change my name in the books."