The Phoenix Suns retained Deandre Ayton when they matched his four-year, $133 million offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers. With the Suns not offering Ayton an extension before the season and any sort of deal in his restricted free agency, they signaled that they don't value him in a way we typically see for players of his caliber. 

Many expected Ayton to depart the Suns this offseason in a sign-and-trade, but the Kevin Durant trade talks presumably made that scenario more difficult. Now, the Suns and Ayton will have to rehabilitate their working relationship. 

"The weirdness of the Ayton situation, both the contract negotiations, the widespread perception, I'm talking widespread around the league that the bridge was pretty much burned between Ayton and the team," said Zach Lowe on his podcast.

"The comments that Monty Williams made after Game 7 when he pulled Ayton. There's clearly some mending of fences that has to happen there. Can it happen? Is this just a 'we're waiting it out until we can trade him' situation. That's another interesting human dynamic."

The Phoenix Suns have been "all but eliminated" from a trade for Kevin Durant, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic. 

The Suns were the team widely considered atop Durant's wish list for a trade, but their ability to do a one-on-one trade was always unlikely and now they cannot include Deandre Ayton in any outgoing package after they matched a four-year, $133 million offer sheet he signed with the Indiana Pacers. 

The Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat are the three teams leading the pursuit of Durant. 

The Phoenix Suns and head coach Monty Williams have agreed to a long-term contract extension. Williams had two years left on the five-year deal he signed with the Suns in 2019.

In three years, Williams has gone 149-78 for Phoenix. That includes leading the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals.

Williams also led Phoenix to the best record in the NBA last season with a franchise-record 64 wins. The Suns have improved their regular season record each of the last two years under Williams.

Prior to joining Phoenix, Williams had coached the New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans for five seasons. He went 173-221, with two playoff appearances for New Orleans.

Deandre Ayton will remain with the Phoenix Suns after they matched a four-year, $133 million maximum offer sheet he signed with the Indiana Pacers. Phoenix never made an offer to Ayton.

"This is a blessing," Ayton told ESPN's Andscape in a phone conversation after signing his contract. "This contract not only has generational impact for my family, but also with the way we are able to work in the Phoenix community and home in the Bahamas. That is the things that we go by ...

"I've come to understand that this is a business. So, I was more anxious to know the end of the result so I could focus, move on and just get back to work. I just treated everything like a business. Just keep being professional, approach everything with professionalism and not looking too deep into it."

James Jones said he told Ayton through the entire free agency process that he planned to re-sign him, including during a videoconference on July 1. James also told ESPN's Andscape that it was "important" and "critical" to match immediately.

"We wanted Deandre here," Jones said in a phone interview. "He's vital to what we do, at the core of everything that we do. And throughout this whole process it was, it rang true. We wanted to keep him here, and the moment we can come to an agreement, we would. So, waiting 24 hours, 48 hours, that wasn't something we needed to do because going into it, we knew this is where he wanted to be and where we wanted him to be.

"I'm one to just be direct. And if you're convicted, if you know what you want to do, you do it. But if there's any doubt from anyone that we wanted him, I think that the matching did that. It was urgent for us. It was important. It was critical for us. So, we just wanted to make sure that we handled our business quickly."

Jones noted "negotiation" as the reason the Suns didn't offer a maximum contract to Ayton. Phoenix saved roughly $43 million and an extra year of contract with the matched offer sheet.

"I'm not going to go into the inner details," Jones said. "I just look forward. We had some really robust and good conversations. It ultimately led to him getting a max offer sheet that we matched."

With the Phoenix Suns matching the offer sheet Deandre Ayton signed with the Indiana Pacers, they will be unable to use him as an outgoing asset in a potential trade for Kevin Durant.

"It takes a big chip off the board for them from an asset standpoint to try to get something done," said Tim Bontemps. "To me, this signals that the fact they didn't get a sign-and-trade done and just kept Deandre, to more or less indicates that one way or another they weren't getting Kevin Durant. At least in the short-term."

"I'm not sure that they weren't getting him," said Brian Windhorst. "I think they have, and by the way they're not alone... How do I want to put this? I think the position they're taking is that they've made their offer for Kevin Durant. And their offer is their offer. And it's not an offer that the Nets are interested in.

"I'm not even sure the Suns can put together an offer that the Nets would be interested in by themselves. I think this is where the other teams are as well.

"I think the other teams have said 'Brooklyn, here is our offer. I don't have any incentive to raise our offer because I know nobody else is raising theirs. I think that is what Indiana was trying to catch them in. Indiana was trying to catch them in that.

"This is them partially saying 'We're not counting on Kevin Durant. We have a 64-win team. This is going to take us into the tax.'"

Windhorst adds that if he were an oddsmaker, he would make the Suns a longer shot to successfully trade for Durant.

Later in the podcast, Windhort reports that the Suns have not offered Mikal Bridges and their full boat of future first round picks and pick swaps to the Nets. 

On Thursday evening, Adrian Wojnarowski also reported that the Suns are "probably without the assets to be competitive for a Kevin Durant trade."

The Phoenix Suns have matched the four-year, $133 million maximum offer sheet Deandre Ayton signed with the Indiana Pacers.

Ayton will remain with the Suns and cannot be traded without his permission for a full year, and cannot be traded at all until after January 15th.

The Suns never presented Ayton with an offer in free agency.

The Phoenix Suns have yet to show any interest in negotiating a sign-and-trade with the Indiana Pacers for Deandre Ayton.

Ayton is expected to soon sign a four-year, $133 million offer sheet with the Pacers.

The expectation is that the Suns will match the offer sheet. Phoenix would be unable to trade Ayton before January 15th.

The Suns never offered Ayton a contract in restricted free agency.

Deandre Ayton has agreed to a four-year, $133 million maximum offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers.

The Phoenix Suns will have 48 hours to match the offer sheet to Ayton from the moment he signs it. If the Suns match the contract, they would be unable to trade him until after January 15th.

Ayton and the Suns were unable to agree to terms on an extension before the 21-22 season, sending him to restricted free agent.

The Suns had not seriously engaged with Ayton on the type of contract he was seeking and never made him an offer at all.

The Pacers created the cap space to sign Ayton, in part, by trading Malcolm Brogdon to the Boston Celtics. Indiana and Phoenix had discussed a sign-and-trade with Ayton, but were unable to gain traction. The Suns have also pursued a trade for Kevin Durant, which complicated their flexibility on Ayton scenarios. 

Deandre Ayton is easily the best free agent still available and his market has been slowed due to his status as a restricted free agent and the Phoenix Suns possible pursuit of Kevin Durant. Now, it seems like Ayton is finally getting some movement on his next contract.

While speaking on ESPN's Get Up, Brian Windhorst said that the Indiana Pacers could sign Ayton as soon as Monday to an offer sheet. Windhorst also said a sign-and-trade is possible to send Ayton to Indiana.

The Pacers had to complete the Malcolm Brogdon trade with the Boston Celtics before they could move onto a deal for Ayton. That trade was officially completed on Saturday. The Pacers are now within range of being able to sign Ayton to a max offer sheet, or to work a sign-and-trade with the Suns.

The Houston Rockets were close to a draft night trade of Eric Gordon with the Philadelphia 76ers the presumed landing spot before talks fell apart.

The Rockets also received offers on Gordon from the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, who offered packages including first round picks. The Los Angeles Lakers have also expressed interest in Gordon.

The Sixers re-engaged the Rockets at the start of free agency, but were unable to get a deal done as Houston isn't desperate to trade Gordon. The Rockets could reevaluate offers on Gordon later in the offseason and even at the deadline.

Gordon signed a four-year, $76 million extension in 2019. Gordon has $19.6 million on his contract for 22-23 and $20.9 million for 2023-24. However, the final season is fully non-guaranteed unless Gordon's team wins the NBA Finals in 2023 or he makes the All-Star team in 2023.