How did we get here? Pacers extend 4-year, $133M max offer sheet to Ayton; Phoenix Suns on clock

The Phoenix Suns have 48 hours to answer Deandre Ayton.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted Thursday afternoon that Ayton, a restricted free agent, has agreed to a max offer sheet of four years, $133 million with the Indiana Pacers.

The Suns have two days to match the offer once it is signed.

If they match the offer, the Suns can't trade Ayton to the Pacers and Ayton will have veto power over a trade to the remaining 28 teams for a year.

The Suns couldn't trade him until Jan. 15.

Wojnarowski is reporting the Suns are expected to match the offer sheet, but there's a key element in this situation that's even more timely, but can't be overlooked.

The Suns and Pacers have until midnight ET time to work out a sign-and-trade before the offer sheet is officially signed, ESPN's Bobby Marks tweeted.

If they don't match, Ayton will join the Pacers and the Suns won't get anything in return for one of the NBA's best young big men.

Sources told The Republic last week the Pacers were seriously interested in Ayton.

Ayton's agent, Bill Duffy, was watching the Pacers play last week at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

Then ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported Monday the Pacers were looking to deliver an offer sheet to Ayton as early as Monday after the trade of Malcolm Brogdon to the Celtics became official.

Now the Pacers have proceeded to make what ESPN is reporting the largest offer sheet in NBA history to Ayton.

The journey to this point began in the 2021 NBA playoffs when Ayton raised his level of playing in helping the Suns reach the finals.

Although the Suns lost to the Bucks in six games, the thought was that they'd pay Ayton going into the final year of his initial four-year rookie deal.

Ayton went into the 2021-22 season seeking a rookie max extension of five years, $172 million, but talks between his representatives and the Suns broke down to the point the two sides couldn't agree on any extension at all.

"One thing about me, throughout my whole life, I've always learned to control what I can control," Ayton said after the season opener about not getting a rookie max extension. "At the same time, obviously I'm disappointed, but I'm still trying to get us back to the finals. I've still got to represent the team and myself as well. I'm just a competitor, man. Just like to compete to the best and every time I'm in between those lines, that's what you're going to see out of me. Nothing else."

Ayton would've filled the second allotted rookie max extension an NBA team can have. All-Star Devin Booker has the first.

The Suns proceeded to win a franchise-record 64 games in the 2021-22 regular season, with Ayton their second-leading scorer behind Booker.

Averaging 17.2 points a game on a career-best 63.4% shooting, Ayton averaged a double-double for a fourth straight season. The Suns went into the playoffs as the No. 1 overall seed, but fell short of returning to the finals.

MORE: Why Suns working a trade for Kevin Durant isn't that simple.

The fourth-seeded Dallas Mavericks eliminated them in the Western Conference semifinals, blasting the Suns by 33 points in Game 7 at Footprint Center.

To make matters worse, Ayton got into a verbal exchange with Suns head coach Monty Williams when Williams took him out of the game with 8:26 left in the third quarter and Phoenix trailing by 38 points.

Ayton was never put back into Game 7 as he finished with a playoff-low five points.

After the game, Williams was asked why Ayton only played 17 minutes.

"It's internal," he said.

The next day, Williams, during his exit media Zoom media availability, said he and Ayton didn't talk after the game.

No, we didn’t,” Williams said when asked if he and Ayton talked after the game. “You guys know me well enough, I’m going to do everything I can to help us win games and at that point with the lead where it was, I made a decision not to put him back in the game.”

Then Duffy discussed Ayton in an interview with Justin Termine and Suns TV commentator Eddie Johnson on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

"He's a valuable player and there's other teams in the league as well," Duffy said. "He's a restricted free agent, so we'll see how this process unfolds."

Talk swirled around the league that the Suns should do a sign-and-trade with Ayton to get some talent in return, but Suns General Manager James Jones made it clear the Suns looked to keep the team together.

"Nothing has changed on our end," Jones said. "We haven't said anything different. DA remains a huge part of what we do and he's a free agent. So we'll talk about free agency when that time comes, but that hasn't changed. I think you hear his teammates. They echo the same sentiment that we have. This team is a really good team and we're going to keep it together."

Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson both said before JaVale McGee's JUGLIFE charity softball tournament they wanted to see Ayton remain in Phoenix.

"Of course, that’s my guy,” Bridges said. “That’s my best friend. Definitely don’t want him going anywhere else.”

Then Kevin Durant shook up the league when asking for a trade out of Brooklyn on the first day of free agency and putting Phoenix and Miami atop his trade wish list.

However, ESPN reported the Nets weren't interested in Ayton.

So that led to the idea of at least a three-team deal would be needed for Phoenix to move Ayton to a third team and get Durant from the Nets.

Durant is set to start a four-year, $198-million extension this season.

During the first week of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Indiana became a consistent team linked to Ayton either with an offer sheet or sign-and-trade.

That talk has turned to the Pacers offering Ayton a max extension the Suns now have 48 hours to match or officially part ways with him.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pacers, Ayton agree to 4-year, $133M max offer sheet, Suns on clock