Deandre Ayton was named to the All-Rookie First Team after a successful first season in the league after being drafted #1 overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2018 NBA Draft.
During an extremely dysfunctional first season, Ayton was mostly relegated to scoring around the basket, but his offensive skill set is seemingly more refined than that.
According to a recent story by Gerald Bourguet on FanSided’s The Step Back, Ayton will likely be attempting more three-pointers in his sophomore season of 2019-20, mostly on the recommendation of new Suns Head Coach Monty Williams:
“He [Williams] is right there when I’m shooting all them threes in practice,” Ayton said in Bourguet’s story. “I’ll be working out and he’s right there watching. I put up a lot of threes in these workouts, so it’s kind of opening my eyes that they really want me to shoot these threes. So, I’m not going to hesitate.”
Ayton has a history of taking triples as recently as his freshman season at Arizona in 2017-18. Ayton only attempted 35 three-pointers in college, but that was more than 30 more than the 4 he took last year with the Suns.
Coach Williams agrees that shooting more triples is the right approach for Ayton going forward:
“In our offense, there’s a number of opportunities in the trail spot where he can knock down the 3 or transfer the ball,” Williams said in Bourguet’s piece. “He’s worked on it, and my philosophy is if you’ve worked on it, do it. If you have it in your game and you’ve spent the time and put the sweat in, do it in the game.”
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