Not sure. There’s reports I sort of trust and reports that feel like propaganda.
Some of the propaganda related to the 2 Rookie Extension limit for a team. So if Booker and Ayton have theirs, and the Suns wanted to make a play to acquire another player in a rookie extension, Suns would be limited in their ability to acquire said player without including Booker or Ayton. At the time last year Tatum & Celtics looked headed towards mediocrity, and Tatum was on record as saying he wanted the Suns to draft him in 2017, so it was the rumor du jour.
The realistic is simply Sarver is cheap and wants to mitigate risk. Word is they offered a 3 year at MAX money, but this was never confirmed. Personally I thought Ayton should have taken a 2+1 (PO) deal to be a UFA sooner. That 2 years would have coincided with Paul’s likely window, and then he hits UFA at age 25, setting himself up for 2 more nice paydays.
But I understand pride and when MPJ is getting Max with a bad back, and Bam is getting a Max after a Finals run, you sort of expect the Market to determine rate and his rate was unquestioned Max Money for Max Years.
What is especially ing hilarious is had the Suns signed Ayton to his Rookie Max Extension last year, they could simply trade him without Base Year Comp issues that his RFA will bring this offseason, which makes trading with Hard Capped clubs very difficult, and, just so happens that the Nets are a Hard Capped Team, so, Ayton for Durant (even with lots and lots of added talent and picks) is almost impossible within CAP constraints because only half of whatever a SnT deal is worth counts in the trade. So if Ayton’s year one is 30 million, it only counts as 15 in the trade, but counts 100% vs Nets cap, making matching salaries a mother er.
Serves their dumbasses right.