Deandre Ayton: I can feel the world hating me... My goal this summer is to change the narrative

There were two pathways presented. The Suns could use their assets — the partially-guaranteed contract of Chris Paul, big man Deandre Ayton and a handful of second-round draft picks — to attempt to add another star-level player. Or, they could knock $15 million off the books by waiving Paul and get access to their midlevel exception and search the free agent market to build depth around Durant and co-star Devin Booker. Depth was an issue after the Durant trade and was also a factor in the postseason loss to the Nuggets. Ishbia listened to each case and issued his preference: both. “I hope to win now,” Ishbia said. “And then we’ll do the work and figure out how to manage it later.” -via ESPN / July 13, 2023

DRAYMOND GREEN ON CHRIS PAUL COMING TO THE WARRIORS AND WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE TEAM, AND PREDICTS THAT HE’LL “COMPLETELY UNLOCK JONATHAN KUMINGA’S GROWTH” “I think he brings a couple things. Number 1, I thought last year…and Stephen Curry said this in his press conference, we ran out of variety and what I mean about variety is in a team you need to have a variety…Our team last year didn’t have a variety of ways to score and I think CP adds another thing to the menu to address the topic of a variety of ways to score. Cp plays totally different than Steph, totally different than Klay Thompson, totally different than myself and Jordan Poole… I also think last year, Steph and I got split up a lot and me and Steph together we’re dangerous. Our minutes got split up a bunch because our second unit couldn’t figure it out and in turn I got put into the second unit to help stabilize things. That’s like 15 fewer minutes a game we’re together. Well now, CP can anchor that unit…and I think that is a big thing to helping unlock our team again…I’ll tell you one more thing that I think it unlocks and I look forward to learning this from him; I think Chris Paul will completely unlock Jonathan Kuminga and his growth. CP is great with young guys. Ayton looked like a bust before Chris came to Phoenix. No disrespect but more of a compliment to CP but people didn’t know what Deandre Ayton was gonna turn out to be and suddenly he became an all-star level player. So I think what he will do for Jonathan Kuminga and unlocking him is huge. Absolutely huge! And I look forward to learning that from him.” -via YouTube / July 3, 2023

Kellan Olson: Bradley Beal: “I haven’t had a chance to play with this type of talent level, ever.” Called Deandre Ayton one of the best bigs in the league and said he thinks his impact is going to be huge. -via Twitter @KellanOlson / June 29, 2023