Deandre Ayton on relationship with Monty Williams: ‘Everything is back to normal’

Nothing to see here, move along.

Maybe there is a little history, like how Phoenix did not offer Deandre Ayton a max contract extension so he had to go out and get one from the Pacers, which the Suns instantly matched. Ayton did not sound thrilled to be back in Phoenix on Media Day, then soon after said he had not spoken with coach Monty Williams since last playoffs.

But that’s all ancient history. Now everything is all good in the valley of the Suns, right Ayton? Here’s what Ayton said this week, via the Arizona Republic.

“I mean, we talk, man. At the end of the day, it’s like we’re trying to contribute to a win. Everything is back to normal. Nothing has changed to be honest. Yeah, I may have come to media day just bland, but I wasn’t trying to give nobody no damn story or nothing, but it flipped on me. So, I can’t really say nothing. Just let everybody run away with it. All I know is we’ve been in here working. We’ve been battling each other, beating up each other in training camp. Coach has been loving it.”

In truth, things were probably never as bad as some reports made it out to be, but they aren’t all puppy dogs and lollipops now.

The question this season isn’t are the Suns going to work hard and be good — they went to the Finals two seasons ago and won 64 games last season. Instead, the questions are how will they handle adversity, will Chris Paul keep playing at the same high level, will they miss Jae Crowder, and did Luka Doncic and the Mavericks expose a fatal flaw in this roster construction? We will find out all of that by April and May.

For now, there’s nothing to see here, move along.